Milwaukee Bridge War
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The area that is now the city of Milwaukee was originally home to three settlements: Solomon Juneau's Juneautown, founded on the east side of the Milwaukee River in 1818; Byron Kilbourn's Kilbourntown on the west side of the river, founded in 1834; and Walker's Point to the south, founded by George H. Walker also in 1834.[3]
The early history of Milwaukee was marked by the rivalry between Juneautown and Kilbourntown, mostly due to the actions of Byron Kilbourn. Kilbourn had been trying to isolate Juneautown to make it more dependent on Kilbourntown. For example, when he laid out his street grid in 1835, he paid no attention to the existing street layout of Juneautown. Kilbourn's maps showed Juneautown as a blank space, and when steamers delivered goods to Kilbourn's west-side docks, he ordered the captains to tell passengers that Juneautown was an Indian trading post.[3] The three areas were incorporated into the village of Milwaukee in 1839.[3]
The bridges
In 1840, the Wisconsin Territorial Legislature, finding the ferry system on the Milwaukee River to be "inadequate", ordered the construction of a bridge. This first bridge was built over Chestnut Street (now Juneau), with Solomon Juneau's support.[3] That same year Kilbourn built a bridge across the Menomonee River. Three more bridges were built over the Milwaukee — at Spring Street (now Wisconsin) in 1842, at Oneida (now Wells) in 1844, and one between Walker's Point and Juneautown at North Water Street. Kilbourn was opposed to the Chestnut, Oneida, and North Water bridges, as he felt they would be a hazard to ships visiting his docks.[3]
