"MNRebecca" wrote in message
...
What is this bridge for, exactly? Here it is, from both
sides:

http://personal.morris.umn.edu/~webb...ndeBridge1.jpg
http://personal.morris.umn.edu/~webb...ndeBridge2.jpg

Some info:
1. It's old (obviously). Boards (for walking across)
seem too rotted
to hold much weight.
2. I don't think it's wide enough for a tractor to drive
across, but
it's obviously not just for human foot traffic, right?
3. The ditch of water beneath it is maybe 10-15 feet
wide. I think
it's a man-made tributary from the Chippewa River. It
seems to run
neatly along the boundaries of farm quarter sections in
the area. The
bridge seems to connect two farms across the water.

Was the water used for irrigation, do you think? What
role did the
bridge play? Thanks if you can help (or direct me to
another source)

Looks like a pulley bridge where only one side is opened up
(by pulling
one side up into the air) to let traffic (boats) through.

There's probably a hundred and one things that the water was
used
for but since it was made to open, the water was definitely
a pathway
to bigger waters. Most likely dug wider and deeper by man
to help
accumudate irragation for the two farms.

Donna
in WA who is just guessing.....