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Boughton Street Bridge

Considered same as Labaree Bridge

 

John Schlueter vividly recalls the Indians that inhabited the city during his boyhood days.  Near Boughton’s bridge there were nearly 100 Indian huts.  He recalls having seen hundreds of squaws with their papooses strapped to their backs, walking through the streets here.  The husband, he says, always rode the horse, while the squaw and the papoose walked along beside. 

 

1855

09 13       PASSABLE ONCE MORE

The hiatus of some thirty feet in the center of the Labaree Bridge has been made good, so that vehicles may pass over with comparative safety.  The construction of a new one as soon as practicable will be indispensable to insure safety to lives and property.  The present one was built over ten years, the timbers of which are much decayed, and cannot be expected to bear up much longer.    WD

 

11 15       BRIDGE REPAIR ORDERED

The committee appointed for examining the repairs made on Labaree bridge [Boughton], reported in favor of said repairs, and their report having been adopted, the said committee were discharged, and it was ordered that orders be drawn on the city general fund for balance due to the contractors amounting at $110.00.    A resolution for repairing Boughton bridge was offered by Alderman Werlich and on motion referred to the committee on highways and bridges.   WD

 

1858

Joseph Boughton, profile of

 

1859

06 16       BRIDGE REPAIR ORDERED

Labaree bridge [Boughton] to be repaired by putting a stringer under center of sidewalk and properly secured to keep the plank[s] in their place, also raising and securing one bent [warped plank?] that has settled out of place.

 

1864

02 12       To Contractors – Notice is hereby given that proposals will be received by the undersigned, Chairman of the Committee on Streets and Bridges, until Monday, the 22nd of February, 1864, for building Second Street bridge, County Line bridge, Smith’s bridge at east end of Main Street, and for a bridge between [on] Waldron Street, in the 7th ward, according to plans and specifications in my office. 

 

Said bridges to be finished within four months from the letting of the contract.

 

Michael McHugh, Chairman of the Committee on Streets and Bridges.

 

08 18       LIABILITY FOR WORKMEN

Committee on Streets and Bridges, report of Boughton bridge construction.   On motion of Ald. Rogan the same was recommitted to ascertain how far the city is liable to the workmen on said bridge.   WD

 

09 22       SETTLEMENT WITH MR. BOUGHTON

Ald. Graves, Chairman of the Committee on Streets and Bridges, reported that the committee had settled with Mr. Boughton upon the following terms:  Five hundred dollars now and forty dollars as soon as he has properly fixed the abutments on each end of the bridge.

 

Resolved, That an order be drawn on the City General Fund for five hundred dollars in favor of Theodore Prentiss, to apply on the contract of Luther S. Boughton & Son, the said contract have been assigned to the said Prentiss, the order to be drawn payable to bridge contract and in accordance with the accompanying report of the Committee on Street and Bridges, provided that the acceptance of said order by the contractors shall be taken as a waiver by them of all claims against the city on said contract, and for extra work and materials furnished upon said bridge.  Adopted.  WD

 

10 06       SETTLEMENT WITH MR. BOUGHTON

Alderman Graves, Chairman of Committee on Streets and Bridges, reported that he had examined the Boughton bridge, that the abutments were now made as directed by committee, but that Mr. Boughton & Son were not willing to accept $540 in full pay for the bridge, claiming extra pay for girths put in.  No action taken.   WD

 

1877

12 19       SIDEWALK TO OAK HILL CEMETERY

It may now be regarded as a certainty that we [will] have a continuous sidewalk to Oak Hill cemetery.  Within a short time the sidewalk will be built to Boughton’s bridge and through the enterprise of Mr. Boughton and the liberal spirit displaced by a portion of our citizens the sidewalk from the bridge to the cemetery grounds will be completed within a short time.

 

1890

06 06       NEW IRON BRIDGE

The Board of Street Commissioners at its last meeting awarded the contract for putting in a new iron bridge in place of the old Boughton bridge to the Milwaukee Bridge and Iron works for $4,577, and the contract for remodeling and widening Main Street bridge to the E. Kunert Manufacturing Co. of this city for $4,500 with an additional cost of $1.00 per foot for hand railing.  We are pleased to see that a Watertown institution has secured one of these contracts, and hope the day is not far-distant when all work of this kind wanted in this city and vicinity will be manufactured here.     WG

 

1891

05 15       SIDEWALK AND APPROACHES

We refer city taxpayers to the arbitrary and illegal ruling of the chair at the last meeting of the Board of Street Commissioners on the matter of building a sidewalk and filling approaches to Boughton's bridge.  Such a ruling may get the city into trouble, and it should not be allowed to stand.  Regardless of the merits of the measure passed on, a ruling of this kind is a bad precedent to establish, and we cannot allow it to pass without censure, and such it deserves from every citizen.  High-handed proceedings of this kind are, to say the least, audacious and dangerous.  It requires five votes according to our city charter to carry any measure wherein a money consideration is involved, but the chairman on Monday evening last declared that four votes are sufficient.  He might just as well have declared that it only requires his own vote to carry the measure he so wrongfully ruled on.          WG

 

05 20       GRADING EXPENSES

There appears to be a difference of opinion as to whether the expense of grading the approaches to the Boughton bridge and building the sidewalks should be a city or a Second ward expense.  The Second ward has voted $100 out of the city general fund to use in improving outlying roads in said ward.  Now, as this bridge is on one of the outlying roads in the ward, what wrong would there be in the Second ward paying the expense of the work referred to out of the $100 appropriated from the city general fund?           WR

 

1902

BRIDGE OVER ROCK RIVER

   Known to be Watertown.  Likely Boughton St. Bridge, viewed from Riverside Park

 

1903

01 24       ICE OPENINGS FOR FIREFIGHTING; FIRE HOSE PURCHASES

The Committee on Fire Department was given power to hire men to keep the ice open at Silver Creek and Boughton bridges for the use of the fire department.

 

CROSS REFERENCE NOTE:  The 150-year history book on the Watertown Fire Department mentions a spot underneath the Oconomowoc Avenue bridge where the Rock River was kept open during the winter by inserting a barrel in the ice and piling manure on top of it.  In a fire emergency a hose could be lowered into the water through the opening.

 

1906

07 29        COLLISION OF FARMER TEAMS

A collision of farmer teams occurred Wednesday evening at a point this side of Boughton bridge, where the road is very narrow and the embankment quite high.  It was impossible to learn the names of the farmers, but it is understood that one of them was quite seriously injured.  It was very dark at the point where the collision occurred.  Residents in that section have long wanted a street light at the bridge and the recent occurrence will no doubt bring the matter before the city council at its next meeting.   WL

 

1911

05 04        THAT DIVISION STREET SIDEWALK

On Wednesday afternoon we viewed the premises on the north side of Division Street, west of East Avenue [today Dewey Ave], in the 6th ward, and we must say we were greatly surprised that the City Council, on recommendation of the Board of Public Works, had ordered a sidewalk built there.  There is no earthly use for it as ordered by the City Council, for to the northwest and east of the particular walk ordered, on either end of the bridge, there is no sidewalk, and no one resides east on that side who is calling for a walk.  The only house in the district is owned by one of the two property owners that will have to stand the expense, and neither of whom desire the walk.  The travel is all on the other side of the street and there is a walk there as far as East Avenue.  Then again there is no walk on the north side of the Boughton bridge, the walk being on the south side of the bridge.  Right should prevail in the matter and we will wager all that we are worth that 99 out of 100 people viewing the premises will agree with the Gazette in this matter.  Our people are being heavily taxed of late years to carry on public improvements and there has been but little grumbling, but where so heavy a burden is laid on individual taxpayers as the building of this walk near Boughton’s bridge, without any public demand, or where there is no great public benefit, we believe there is just cause for complaint, and the Board of Public Works and City Council, if much of such work is ordered, will meet with just condemnation by our citizens in general.   WG

 

1914

BOUGHTON’S BRIDGE

  

 

c.1920

DISTANT VIEW, from Riverside Park

  

 

1937

The 213-foot-long bridge was constructed in 1937.

 

1982

Some deck repairs completed in 1982.

 

2007

06 08       BRIDGE WILL CLOSE FOR WORK

The Boughton Street Bridge (same as Division Street bridge) near Riverside Park will be closed to traffic starting on June 19 so that workers can rehabilitate the structure.

 

The bridge work is expected to be completed by July 31.

 

Some of the improvements include a concrete deck overlay of the bridge structure, asphaltic surface milling, deck milling and prep, and asphaltic surface approaches. The existing bridge rail will remain in place but will be repaired and painted.

 

The bridge work will cost $181,000 with the city covering 20 percent of the total. The remaining 80 percent will be covered by state and federal funding.

 

The 213-foot-long bridge was constructed in 1937 and had some deck repairs completed in 1982.

 

 

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Cross References:

Boughton St Bridge         Near old swimming beach

 

 

 

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