SCOUTING YESTERDAY | International acclaim follows completion of Yankton bridge, decades of failures

This week in South Dakota history: Oct. 11-17

Meridian Bridge, 1924. Photo: Argus Leader

After 50 years and a dozen or more failed attempts, a week of celebration followed the long-anticipated completion of the Meridian Bridge across the Missouri River at Yankton a century ago, according to the Rapid City Journal. 

The need for a permanent crossing on the river was recognized early on by pioneers who floated timber across the Might Mo for the town’s first construction projects in 1858. Efforts to build a bridge began as early as 1871, but with repeated project failures and outstanding debt on bonds sold for those unsuccessful attempts, the community couldn’t move ahead with serious plans until the formation of a new bridge company in 1919 that would lead yet another bridge project.

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