Veterans Memorial Bridge
Bismarck, ND
The Veterans Memorial Bridge connects the North Dakota cities of Bismarck and Mandan, crossing the Missouri River and the parks along its banks. Lewis and Clark came this way in 1804, and the bridge crosses their Trail. The new bridge replaces a 1928 steel truss bridge named in honor of the area’s World War I veterans. The river itself is heavily used by recreational boaters.
The North Dakota DOT established a Community Advisory Committee to guide the design of the bridge. The Committee asked for a “distinctive” bridge, one that continued and enhanced the memorialization of veterans and incorporated unique and memorable features. The river itself is heavily used by recreational boaters. The Memorial Bridge is visible from the river-edge parks, the boats and neighboring but distant bridges.
The bridge also had to accommodate the main east-west transmission line of North Dakota’s power grid, which the previous bridge had carried as a suspended cat’s cradle of power lines. Steel box girders were chosen for the bridge both because of the long spans necessary across the Missouri and as a way to both carry and conceal the power transmission cables.
The Y-shaped piers are memorable shapes that are recognizable from the distant bridges. Each pier emerges from the river as a single shaft, but then splits. The two sides curve to form the arms of the Y. Each of the 4 girders balances on its own arm, giving the bridge a light and graceful appearance.
At night the girders are lit from below so that the bridge is a also presence in the nighttime scene, especially in winter with ice and snow on the river.
At each of the 5 piers there is an overlook dedicated to one of the 5 armed services, each identified by its own medallion on the overlook railing. When local veterans groups stepped forward and volunteered to buy, fly and store the flags, the ND DOT agreed to install 4 flagpoles on each overlook. The veterans fly the flags on national holidays.
Monumental plazas at each end of the bridge further memorialize veterans.
“A bridge like this is about more than getting from place to place; a bridge like this is about making the trip memorable, and about celebrating the beauty of this place.”