Missouri River Bridges of South Dakota

For nearly four decades of statehood, South Dakota was almost two states in one. The Missouri River cut the land in half, a barrier that strangled the economy of everything west of the river. There were no bridges, only ferries.

That changed in the nineteen twenties, when engineer John Edward Kirkham designed five steel and concrete bridges to span the great river, built for about two million dollars and completed in nineteen twenty-seven. They finally stitched the divided state together. Over the decades the others were lost as flood-control dams raised the water, but the Chamberlain bridge here survived.

The American Society of Civil Engineers recognized this achievement as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark, honoring the structures that conquered the river and united South Dakota.