MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) — Along the downtown riverwalk is a marker sharing the history of Milwaukee’s Bridge War.
“Each of the founders was really seeing their settlement first and foremost,” said Michael Barea, Assistant Archivist at the Milwaukee County Historical Society. “There was no conception of a City of Milwaukee yet. You had Solomon Juneau on the east side in Juneau Town, and Byron Kilbourn on the west side in Kilbourntown. Kilbourn especially, he had, you know, ‘delusions of grandeur’ as John Gurda said. Juneau was here first. He established Juneau Town in 1818 and obviously he could choose to layout the street grid however he saw fit. What he decided to do was to align it with the Milwaukee River as it passed through downtown. So, it’s close to being north-south, east-west but not quite. When Kilbourn came and established Kilbourn town in 1834 he did decide to align his grid with the compass.”
The proof remains today. Look at Wisconsin, Wells, State and Kilbourn and you’ll see noticeable angles.
“When Kilbourn didn’t align with the Juneau Town grid that necessitated putting in bridges at odd angles and you can see that in different odd angles,” said Barera. “They’re not at all the same skew. They skew in different ways.”
Things came to a head in May of 1845. As the historical marker reads, bridges were dismantled, shots were fired and more than a few noses bloodied…