Bridge to History

COOKSVILLE - In high school, we called guys like Peter Egan gear heads.

They had the fastest and coolest cars, and some of them wound up racing or working in the pits at race tracks in Jefferson, Beaver Dam and Columbus.

Egan, 63, never had a car in high school but took his love of motors to a different level.

For almost 30 years, the Elroy native, Vietnam War veteran and UW-Madison graduate has written about cars and motorcycles for Road & Track and Cycle World magazines.

His stories have taken him around the world, but for the past 21 years, he's also been keeping a close eye on a bridge. It crosses Badfish Creek, just a few yards from the end of his driveway in northern Rock County, about six miles south of Stoughton.

But for Egan and his wife, Barb, Stoughton is about a nine-mile drive. That's because two months after they moved into their home, built in 1878 on West Leedle Mill Road, the town of Union closed the bridge because of structural integrity concerns.

That was in the summer of 1990.

While they've gotten used to the detour, at one time they fought to save the steel bridge. Now they regretfully admit the time has come to replace it.

Technically known as a Pratt through-truss bridge, the 120-foot-long, single-lane structure was built in 1916. This summer, the rusting steel will be turned to scrap and a concrete bridge with two lanes and little character will be built to replace the historic structure and make West Leedle Mill Road whole again.

"It's a beautiful old bridge, but it really wasn't very strong," said Egan, who has to put up with a dead-end road for just a few more months. "There will be more traffic," he admits.

Attempts to give away the bridge never panned out. Like a free horse, taking possession would mean substantial costs.

Robert Newbery of the state Department of Transportation said he received fewer than 10 requests for information on the bridge and of those, only one was serious. The potential taker, who wanted to move the bridge 95 miles to the northeast, near West Bend, backed out when he came up $75,000 short of the $125,000 it would cost to dismantle, move, restore and reassemble the bridge at his farm.

"I'm disappointed, but I'm a realist," Newbery said. "It really takes a special combination. The bridge has to be in good enough shape to be worthwhile, and you have to be a little lucky. There has to be a use nearby."

The Egans were among about 200 people who signed a petition in the early 1990s to have the bridge restored. It was ignored by the town's leadership, and plans to replace the bridge kept getting pushed back for higher-priority projects by the state and federal governments, which will fund 90 percent of the $422,000 project. The remaining 10 percent will be paid by the town. Restoring the bridge carried a $680,000 price tag, but it would have remained a one-lane bridge, said town Chairman Kendall Schneider.

"I understand the money end of it, and it comes down to dollars and cents," said Schneider, elected in 2000. "If we get a new bridge, you're probably looking at two to three times the longevity."

Perhaps. But bridges often define an area.

The new bridge over the Wisconsin River near Spring Green is safer, wider and more stable, but I still miss the green trusses every time I pass through that area on Highway 14.

The concrete Marsh Rainbow Arch Bridge, built in 1916 in Chippewa Falls, is still open to motor vehicles, but officials are talking about limiting the downtown bridge to foot and bike traffic.

The Michigan Street Bridge, built in 1930 over a shipping canal in Sturgeon Bay, is undergoing an $18.5 million restoration project that was started in 2009 and is scheduled for completion this fall.

All of those bridges contribute or contributed to the identity of their regions.

The Leedle Mill Bridge is no exception, even though it is partially covered in vegetation, its steel flaking away and its concrete crumbling.

Cooksville is one of the state's historic gems, founded in 1842 and home to dozens of historic homes and structures, including the Cooksville Store, founded in 1846 and one of the state's oldest businesses.

A few years later, in 1849, John and Betsy Curtis built a mill along Badfish Creek near the site of the current Leedle Mill Bridge.

William Leedle and his son bought the four-story mill in 1878 and built the house now owned by the Egans. The dam created a mill pond where the Leedles harvested ice in the winter and where fishing was popular in warmer months.

The dam failed in 1918 and the mill was torn down in 1948.

Egan, a history buff who recently spent seven years restoring a 1964 Lotus Elan, still has a piece of the millstone in his garage. The stone at one time could grind 30 bushels of grain an hour, according to historical accounts.

The coming of a concrete bridge across the creek, home to brown trout and history, may be necessary but it just doesn't seem to fit.

"I think initially it's going to look barren," said Egan. "It's never going to be as pretty as the old bridge."

Barry Adams covers regional news for the Wisconsin State Journal. Send him ideas for On Wisconsin at 608-252-6148 or by email at badams@madison.com.

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.Posted in Local on Sunday, March 20, 2011 11:33 am Updated: 11:46 am. On Wisconsin, Peter Egan, Cooksville, Robert Newbery, Badfish Creek, Truss Bridge, Kendall Schneider, Wisconsin River, Marsh Rainbow Arch Bridge, Leedle Mill Bridge, William Leedle, John Curtis, Betsy Curtis