Klenklen Bridge HAER No. M0-91 Spanning the Lamine River at County Road 223 Vicinity of Pleasant Green Cooper County \

PHOTOGRAPHS HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE DATA REDUCED COPIES OF MEASURED DRAWINGS

Historic American Engineering Record National Park Service Rocky Mountain Regional Office P.O. Box 25287 Denver, Colorado 80225-0287 HISTORIC AMERICAN ENGINEERING RECORD

KLENKLEN BRIDGE HAER No. M0-91

Site Location: Spanning the Lamine River at County Road 223; 4.3 miles northwest of Pleasant Green; southwest quarter of Section 20, Township 47 North, Range 19 West; Cooper County, Missouri.

USGS quadrangle: Clifton City, Missouri (7\-Minute series) Present Owner: Cooper County, Missouri Present Use: closed (scheduled for demolition in 1996) Present Condition: partially collapsed Construction Date: September 1929 - April 1930 Designer: R. T. Faith, Calhoun, Missouri J.A. Dice, Warsaw, Missouri Builder: J.A. Dice, Warsaw, Missouri

Significance: Bridge builder J.A. Dice (1866-1947] built over thirty wire suspension bridges between 1895 and 1940 in central Missouri. Ten of these remain in place today with varying degrees of physical integrity. As a group, these spans comprise the state's most important exam­ ples of vernacular bridge construction, designed and built without benefit of detailed structural analysis. Dice built his suspension spans empirically using easily obtained materials and hand labor, and, as a result, they cost substantially less than comparable steel truss spans. They were strikingly lightweight, however, and have fared poorly in subsequent years. Before its recent structural failure, the Klenklen Bridge was distinguished as one of the best-preserved of the remaining Dice-built bridges. It is still an excellent example of an esoteric structural type-among Missouri's most technologically noteworthy spans from the inter-war period.

Written by: Clayton B. Fraser FRASERdesign 1269 Cleveland Avenue

Loveland1 Colorado 80537

October 1995 If Klenklen Bridge Ii HAER No. M0-91 II page 2

The Historic American Engineering Record [HAER] documentation for the l

The bridge that I.A. Dice built over the Lamine River in 1929-30 was like the many structures he had built during his 45-year career in central Missouri. A sus­ pension span that stretched some 211 feet, it was remarkably light in construc­ tion, with parallel-strand cables held aloft by steel towers and anchored to enormous concrete deadmen buried in the ground. To these cables were wrapped wire suspenders, which held the floor beams that in turn supported the stringers and deck. The bridge was unbraced, sometimes swinging dra­ matically in the wind or sagging under the weight of heavy loads. In its con­ struction, the Klenklen Bridge closely resembled both the first span Dice had worked on in 1895 and his last bridge, completed a few years before his death in 1947.

Dice's bridges were unlike the thousands of other vehicular structures being erected across Missouri and the Midwest at that time. These other concrete and steel structures were designed by civil engineers in the state and federal highway departments. Developed using rigorous structural analysis and based upon standards circulated by such industry and professional organizations as AASHTO and the American Steel Institute, these structures largely represented the engineering state of the art. In contrast with these were the sinewy spans built by J.A. Dice. Dice never performed structural calculations for his bridg­ es, never even surveyed their sites with a transit. Instead he used a ball of string and his own empirical judgement to lay out his spans and vernacular construction methods to build them. As a typical Dice-built structure, the Klenklen Bridge represents the grace and elegance-and eventual failure­ achieved by a craftsman builder and a handful of local workers.

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Cooper County, like virtually all of Missouri's counties, followed a clearly defined pro­ gression in its bridge construction in the 19th century, in response to evolving transportation needs and technological development in the bridge industry. The first simple spans, built as the county was undergoing its initial settlement, were rudimentary timber structures. These were cheap and easy to build but lacking in durability and limited in span length. With greater revenues from increased settlement, the county could undertake more ambitious timber/iron combination trusses in the 1850s and 1860s. These, in turn, were superseded in the late 1870s by all-iron spans, made readily available by mass production. Wrought iron was replaced by steel for bridge superstructures in the 1890s, as the industry developed trusses that were more sturdy and more efficient.

After the turn of the century, the county undertook several ambitious, long­ span steel trusses at major crossings of the Lamine River and Petite Saline and Moniteau creeks. The first of these was the Maston Bridge, a steel truss erect­ ed in 1901 to replace an existing covered bridge over the Lamine. 2 The Mas­ ton Bridge was followed over the next two years by major spans over the Mon­ iteau on the Boonville-California Road, over the Petite Saline at Campbell's Ford, and over the Lamine River at the mouth of Blackwater Creek. Through the rest of the decade the county built successively longer trusses, including the Turley Bridge [1907], the Otterville Ford Bridge (1908], the Bryant Bottom Bridge (1908], the Dicks Bridge (1908] and the Roberts Ford Bridge (1910]. Fabricated and built by the Kansas City Bridge Company, these latter struc­ tures all featured pin-connected Parker superstructures supported by stone masonry or tubular steel abutments.3

The ascendence of the automobile in the 191 Os and 1920s prompted incremen­ tal changes in the condition of roads and bridges in Cooper County. This was symbolized graphically by the erection of an immense new steel highway bridge over the at Boonville. Dedicated on July 4, 1924, the Boonville Bridge marked the massive shift from wagon haulage to the motor­ ized automobile and truck that occurred between the two world wars. After completion of the Boonville structure, the state highway department routed State Highway 2-later U.S. Highway 40, a principal east-west route across Missouri-through Boonville. According to historian E.J. Melton:

Improved highways brought fleets of trucks and inaugurated pickup and delivery from doors of business houses and overnight service from St. Louis and Kansas City. Through freight by truck from St. Louis. Chicago. Kansas City and other points developed rapidly. Auto transports from northern automo­ bile manufacturing centers followed. Farmers began hauling their livestock to market. Others hired independent truckers. who. in some instances. be­ came coal dealers. transporHng from Boone and Randolph counties' mines.4

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Despite improvements on the trunk lines, virtually all of Cooper County's secondary roads were still only dirt or gravel tracks before the Depression. The majority of the major river crossings featured bridges that had been built in the century before. Some still had no bridges at all.

The latter was the case where a county road crossed the Lamine River near Joe Klenklen's farm [see Figure 1]. Located at the western edge of the county some four miles northwest of Pleasant Green, the Klenklen ford was situated on a broad easterly curve of the river. The Thomas Bridge [1907] spanned the Lamine 1 \ miles north, and another span crossed it 2 \ miles south. During the 1920s, residents of Blackwater and Clear Creek townships petitioned the Coop­ er County Court periodically for a permanent bridge at the Klenklen ford, citing the inconvenience of traveling to either of the other crossings. To help defray the cost of construction, they raised a subscription among themselves and offered it to the county. Each time they submitted a petition, however, the court rejected or continued it. The subscription stood at $1400 in May 1929, when A.J. Deuschle once again petitioned the Cooper County Court on behalf of the citizens' group. This time, instead of tabling the petition, the judges agreed to appropriate $4000 toward the bridge's construction.

The cost of bridge building had risen measurably since the 191 Os when county had erected its last major spans over the Lamine River. A 180-foot truss span that the county engineer surveyed for the Klenklen site would have cost less than $8000 at that time. By 1929 its cost had more than doubled-money that Cooper County could ill afford in the financially depressed period that preced­ ed the Great Depression. As a more economical alternative, the court opted to build a suspension bridge, which, with its lightweight superstructure, would cost substantially less than a fixed-span truss. The court acknowledged this in its approval of funds for the proposed Klenklen bridge. The appropriation would be made, the judges stated, "when and if said citizens build a suspen­ sion bridge under specifications, agreement and contract as specified and approved by the county. "5

That summer R.T. Faith, a civil engineer from Calhoun, Missouri, produced a general plan for a suspension bridge at the Klenklen crossing. Faith's design called for a 200-foot main span, with a 30-foot approach span over the south­ side flood plain.6 He delineated a steel superstructure, with steel towers and wire cables, supported by a concrete substructure. In early August the county engineer used Faith's design to solicit competitive proposals for the bridge's fabrication and erection. 7 Later that month only one offer was received-from the Kansas City Bridge Company. At $14,500, the bid was more than twice the amount budgeted by the county, however. It was "deemed not satisfactory"

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!ii Figure 1. Location Map of Klenklen Bridge, from standard Atlas of Cooper County. Missouri. 1915.

by the judges, "is not accepted, and this matter is ordered continued."8 In­ stead, the county did what other counties and road districts had done since the tum of the century: it approached Warsaw, Missouri, bridge contractor J.A. Dice to build the suspension span. In September the Cooper County Court contracted with Dice to provide labor and materials to build the Klenklen Bridge for $6200.9

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Joe Dice was a throwback to the craftsman tradition of bridge building. Born in 1866, he grew up on a farm two miles north of Warsaw, Missouri, with fifteen brothers and sisters. 10 Dice had no formal training in civil engineering and, in fact, no schooling at all beyond the fourth grade. A tall, thin, affable man, he was 29 years old in 1895 when he worked on the construction of a long-span wire suspension bridge over the Osage River at Warsaw. Spanning 440 feet, the structure used cables that were made up of 400 parallel strands of Number 9 galvanized steel wire, supported by timber towers and anchored with massive stone and concrete deadmen. The Warsaw bridge was designed and partly funded by Dr. D.M. Eddy, an oculist who had moved to Warsaw the year be­ fore from Stockton, Missouri. A member of the Paris Academy of Inventors, Eddy was something of an inventor and engineer himself, although it is not known where he acquired the expertise in bridge engineering. n

The Warsaw bridge formed the prototype for virtually all of the Eddy/Dice sus­ pension spans to follow. In 1896 Dice apparently adapted Eddy's design to a wire suspension bridge he built over Sterett Creek in Benton County. Later that year the two collaborated on the Hermitage Bridge, a 300-foot suspension span over the Pomme de Terre River in Hickory County. 12 The success of the Hermitage Bridge prompted Dice to build another toll bridge over the Osage River in 1897. "I had only 20 dollars to start with," Dice later stated, "but I sold a few shares [of stock] and work was underway."13 In 1904 Dice funded and built a third Osage River toll bridge at Warsaw. Extending 600 feet, this was the seventh suspension span he had built either with Eddy or by himself.

In the following years Dice built several other suspension spans in central Mis­ souri. The Tuscumbia Bridge [1905], Tebo Bridge [1905], Heath Ford Bridge [1908], Bailey Bridge [1908] and Branstetter Bridge [1912] all used parallel­ strand, galvanized steel cables supported by wooden towers. On the County Line Bridge in 1912, Dice employed steel towers for the first time. The reason for this may have been the bridge's extreme length: spanning 720 feet between the towers, it was the longest bridge he ever built. 14

When asked by an engineer for a set of blueprints for one of his bridges, Dice responded "There are no blueprints. I keep the plans in my head." His empiri­ cal design method would eventually work to his disadvantage, however, as bridge design and construction fell increasingly under the aegis of the state highway commission in the 1910s and 1920s. Without drawings and structural calculations, Dice experienced difficulty in bidding on state-sponsored pro­ jects. Moreover, his lightweight structures were poorly suited to heavier, high­ speed vehicles. Some of Dice's bridges, like the 1895 Warsaw span, had

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already partially or completely collapsed under load; others had been replaced by more substantial structures. Ultimately, Dice found himself limited to build­ ing locally sponsored bridges on secondary county roads.

The bridge Dice built at the Klenklen crossing resembled the two dozen structures he had erected previously. 15 The 211-foot main span was approached on the south side by a single 20-foot steel stringer span, giving the structure an overall length of 383 feet [see drawings for HAER No. M0-91]. With a nominal road­ way width of 12 feet and a height of 26 feet above the river level, the super­ structure was supported by two suspension cables draped over steel towers on concrete pedestals or abutments. Each tower had two columns anchor-bolted to concrete supports and stiffened with a knee-braced overhead strut. Prefabri­ cated in a machine shop, the columns were comprised of two back-to-back channels on either side of an I-beam, all riveted to steel strap lacing. They were capped by a cast-steel cradle upon which the cable rested. 16

Measuring 24 feet from anchor to cap, the south tower was supported by bat­ tered concrete pedestals with 4-foot-square crowns; the 16-foot-tall north tower rested directly on the concrete abutment. Massive concrete deadmen at the bridge's four corners provided anchorages for the cables. The two main cables each consisted of 500 parallel strands of Number 9, galvanized steel wire. These were spliced together and wrapped around steel pins in the deadmen to form a continuous cable.

More Number 9 wire was used to wrap the 4-inch-diameter, cylindrical cable. Suspender wires were strung from the cables at 6-foot intervals. Each suspend­ er was formed from 24 strands of Number 9 wire, wrapped around the main cable at the top and a steel I-beam floor beam at the bottom. The floor beams were braced laterally by angles crossed at each panel; they sustained knee­ braced, steel angle uprights, to which steel guardrails were bolted. The floor beams supported seven lines of steel stringers, which in turn supported the tim­ ber deck. The main cables and suspenders were hung to form a 12-inch cam­ ber on the deck over the length of the main span.

The lack of a stiffening truss or lateral brace cables saved considerably on the construction cost of the bridge. It also resulted in extensive side-to-side and up-and-down movement on the bridge's deck, as the unbraced cables swayed unfettered in the wind and under moving loads. The cables' movement was ac­ centuated by the fact that the suspenders were wrapped loosely over the floor

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beams and the floorboards were not secured to the stringers. Known as "swing­ ing bridges", Dice's spans were the bane of farmers driving skittish mule teams and the source of thrills for local daredevils.

Dice's contract with Cooper County, signed on September 24, 1929, specified that he would begin work on the Klenklen Bridge within a week. 17 The contractor would provide all of the labor and materials for the bridge; the county in re­ turn would reimburse him for costs up to half of the contract amount. Although the agreement did not stipulate a deadline for the bridge's completion, Dice was directed to "complete the [bridge] as soon as the material can be assem­ bled, and the weather conditions will permit. "18

Dice began work on the bridge by surveying the site. He eschewed a transit, instead relying on his own eyesite to position the towers and deadmen. The irony was that he was "blind as a bat" without eyeglasses, barely able to find his toothbrush on the nightstand in the mornings. 19 Even through his glasses, he had to tilt his head back to see distances. Yet he directed an assistant from across the river, yelling instructions regarding alignment and elevation of the substructural elements. "With a ball of string to stretch across the river a couple of times," Dice later said, "I could just sort of feel the correct measure­ ments. "20 Dice's empirical surveying would prove costly however, as the 200- foot span called for in the plans and specifications somehow translated to 211 feet on the bridge as built, without additional payment from the county.

Not only did Dice shun surveying tools, he did not use motorized equipment for the bridge's construction. All excavation was done by hand, the stone aggre­ gate was quarried by hand and hauled in mule-drawn wagons, concrete was mixed and poured by hand, and the cables were strung, spliced and wrapped by hand. Actual construction began with excavation for the massive concrete deadmen at the bridge's four corners. Under Dice's direction, the workers hand-shoveled six-foot-deep holes for the huge concrete anchors, abutments and pier pedestals, beginning on the south side. The men did not drive timber piles beneath the deadmen or abutments, instead digging flat-bottomed floors for concrete spread footings.

With holes completed for the substructure, the carpenters began building the temporary wooden formworks to place the concrete. Teamsters hauled cement in 96-pound bags as others quarried limestone aggregate from the riverbed two miles away. The men mixed the cement, water and aggregate by hand on 8-foot-by-12-foot mixing boards. With the concrete made up immediately be-

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side the holes, they did not use wheelbarrows, and Dice would not allow them to pour concrete into the formworks directly from the mixing boards. He stood on the formworks, pointing out where he wanted the concrete shoveled in and tamped in place. The steel towers had not yet been fabricated when the crew was pouring the concrete for the tower bases, nor did the men have a pattern for the placement of the towers' anchor bolts. As a result, the concrete for the pedestals and abutments was poured without the bolts; bolt holes were drilled later.

The men worked through the remainder of 1929, sometimes huddled behind makeshift wooden windbreaks to shelter themselves from the biting winter winds. They stopped work altogether when the snow or cold were too severe. Numbering between seven and nine men, the crew typically worked between 7:00am and 5:00pm, with a midday lunch break, on a five-day week. Each man was paid about $3.00 per day. I.A. Dice and Joseph Larm-at 23 the crew's youngest member-stayed at the Klenklens' house near the construction site, where they paid a dollar a day for room and board. The other men re­ turned to their own nearby homes each night. On weekends Dice rode the train home to Warsaw.

By December truckers began to deliver the wire and steel from the railhead at Pleasant Green.21 Using steel from the Illinois and Jones & Laughlin steel companies, the towers were shop-fabricated, covered with a shop coat of black graphite paint, and shipped to the site in pieces. Dice's crew erected the towers on their concrete bases and by the end of the year had begun to spin the wire cables. The men passed 100-pound spools of wire back and forth across the river using a device invented by Dice. Larm described the process:

Each of the two big cables Is made up of dozens of 1/8-inch wires. Well, those wires were sent across one at a time, with a kind of bicycle-wheel gadget that sort of sewed them back and forth. 300 feet to pillars sunk In the ground.22

Each spool of wire was spliced at its end with the next spool to form a contin­ uous strand for each of the two main cables. These were draped over lead sheets on the tower cradles and wrapped around heavy steel pins at the dead­ men. After some 500 strands had been spun into each cable, the cylindrical wire bundle was wrapped with more Number 9 wire, with a tighter wrap near the cable's ends. The men shoveled concrete around the wire ends and pins at the deadmen to anchor the cables in the ground. At 6-foot intervals along the

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cables, one man intertwined more strands of wire down to steel floor beams to form suspenders. The crew then laid stringers across these floor beams, over which they laid the timber deck. Once the crew had placed the deck and guardrails, the structure was virtually complete, ready for Joe Klenklen and his brother Bill to grade the approaches. According to Larm, the Klenklen Bridge was opened to traffic in April 1930.

Since its completion, the Klenklen Bridge has functioned in place at this secon­ dary county road crossing, with only maintenance-related repairs. Flooding in the spring of 1994 seriously undermined the north abutment, however. The abutment's shift has in turn caused the north tower to drop and the main cab­ les to slacken at different rates, canting the deck to one side. Already closed to vehicular traffic, the bridge is now scheduled for replacement. Local senti­ ment has surfaced calling for the county to repair and preserve the bridge, but the cost would be considerable. "There are limits on what local government can do," a Boonville Daily News editorial stated in June 1994. "The primary responsibility must be to take care of the present and the future. When the past can be preserved, it should be done, but not at an exorbitant price. "23 Others assert that the bridge's importance justifies the cost of restoration. With one end collapsing and factions within Cooper County debating the Klenklen Bridge's disposition, its future is presently clouded.

The Klenklen Bridge, like all of I.A. Dice's suspension spans, represents a significant facet of vehicular bridge construction in Missouri. It was built during a period in which bridge construction across the country was dominated by rationally based engineering and marked by the promulgation of design standards by state and federal highway agencies. In a reversion to vernacular practice of the early and mid-19th century, I.A. Dice eschewed detailed structural anal­ ysis in designing his bridges. In building them, he referred only in passing to contract drawings. Instead he relied on empirical design principles and con­ struction techniques developed in the success-and failure-of preceding struc­ tures. Still, he employed such contemporary technologies as galvanized wire and prefabricated, rolled steel components. Surveyed and aligned by eye, de­ signed by experience and built by hand from manufactured parts, the Klenklen Bridge spans between craftsman traditions and industrial technology.

This is both the bridge's success and its failure. Because Dice built his light­ weight suspension spans empirically using easily obtained materials and hand labor, they cost substantially less than comparable steel truss spans. This proved beneficial to counties and road districts seeking to economize on road

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and bridge construction. In the secondary bridge market Dice found a niche which, while not lucrative, kept him successfully employed throughout his leng­ thy career. Dice's bridges are breathtakingly light, however, and most have aged poorly. The partial collapse of the Klenklen Bridge illustrates the struc­ tural flaws that have troubled Dice's suspension spans. Before its failure, the Klenklen Bridge was distinguished as one of the best-preserved of the remain­ ing Dice-built bridges. Today it still is an excellent example of an esoteric structural type, among Missouri's most technologically noteworthy spans from the inter-war period.

Endnotes

1This HAER documentation draws upon a previous unpublished study of the Klenklen Bridge for background information: Fraserdesign, "Klenklen Bridge: Preliminary Determination of NRHP Eligibility for the Missouri Historic Bridge Inventory," 17 March 1993, on file at the Missouri Department of Nat­ ural Resources, Jefferson City, Missouri.

2Cooper County Court Record Book V, p. 361 (8 February 1901), p. 454 (1 July 1901), p. 555 (7 February 1902), located at the Cooper County Clerk's Office, Cooper County Courthouse, Boonville, Missouri.

3Cooper County Court Record Book V: p. 592 (9 August 1905); Book W: p. 606 (7 September 1905); Book X, pp. 90-91 (9 May 1906), p. 98 (6 June 1906), p. 102 (9 July 1906), p. 162 (4 December 1906), p. 173 (4 February 1907), p. 256 (8 May 1907), p. 263 (3 June 1907), p. 273 (1 July 1907), p. 280 (5 August 1907), · pp. 281-282 (5 August 1907), p. 304 (3 September 1907), p. 334 (6 November 1907), p. 356 (8 January 1908), p. 365 (3 Febru­ ary 1908), p. 447 (4 May 1908), p. 461 (6 May 1908), p. 473 (6 July 1908), pp. 500-501 (8 August 1908), pp. 586-587 (9 December 1908), p. 608 (1 February 1909); Book Y: p. 119 (4 October 1909), p. 139 (6 December 1909), p. 154 (4 January 1910).

4E.J. Melton, Melton's History of Cooper County, Missouri (Columbia, Missouri: E.W. Stephens Publishing Company, 1937), p. 119.

5Cooper County Court Record Book F, p. 272 (6 May 1929).

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6 R.T. Faith, "Suspension Bridge, Pleasant Greene [sic], Missouri," blueprint of construction drawing located at the Cooper County Courthouse, Boonville, Missouri.

7Cooper County Court Record Book F, p. 345 (7 August 1929).

8Cooper County Court Record Book F, p. 349 (26 August 1929).

9Cooper County Court Record Book F, p. 366 (24 September 1929).

1°Kathleen Kelly White and Kathleen White Miles, The History of Benton County, Missouri, Vol. 2 (Warsaw, Missouri: Benton County Historical Society, 1969), p. 14j.

11 Robert Hayden, "Historical Resources Mitigation, Volume II: Bridg­ es over the Osage," report produced under contract with U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Kansas City, Missouri, September 1980, pp. 51-52. In his report, Hayden quotes from a brief biography of Eddy produced by the Missouri State Historical Society in 1964:

Daniel Marion Eddy, besides being a doctor. seems to have been engaged in bridge building in various parts of the country and to have secured at least one patent on an invention for a suspension bridge. He belonged to the Paris Academie of Inventors and received a gold medal from them.

12Benton County Enterprise, 15 May 1896. The newspaper reported that "the Hermitage papers were elated over the new bridge to be built at that place by Dr. Eddy and Joe Dice. It will be 300' long and 6' above high water mark. The contract price is $2,400." On August 14th, the paper reported: "Dr. and Mrs. Eddy and Joe Dice are back in Warsaw again, having finished the Hermitage bridge over the Pomme de Terre River."

13"The Builder," Benton County Enterprise, 24 February 1947.

14Robert Hayden, "Historical Resources Mitigation," p. 26.

15The specifications for the Klenklen Bridge read as follows:

"Specifications for Suspension Bridge over the Lamine River, Cooper County, Missouri (Near Pleasant Green. MO)"

WIRE SUSPENSION BRIDGE

PILLARS: Pillars on North side of river to be seven feet square at the bottom and to be bedded In the ground seven feet. tapering to four feet square at the top. Wall to be put in between the pillars on north side sufficient to hold the dirt. Pillars on north side to be of sufficient height for floor to rest on.

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Pillars on the south side of the river to be eight feet square at the bot­ tom and to be bedded In the groung [sic] not more than ten feet. tapering to four feet square at the top. PIiiars on south side to be of sufficient height for the towers to rest on. All pillars to be of concrete and rock and to use the native gravel out of the creek or river. ANCHORS: To be of rock and concrete, to be one anchor on each side, each to be 22 feet long, seven feet wide and 6 feet deep and to have 8 iron pins one and one half inches in diameter, and two feet and one half in length, on each side for anchor for cables. as shown in blue print. TOWERS: To be made of steel as per blue print. CABlES: To be of No. 9 galvanized wire, 500 wires in each cable, anchored to the pins mentioned in specifications for anchors. Hangers to have 24 wires. FLOOR: Floor to be made of wood twelve feet long and two and one half inches thick. All the rest is steel as shown in blue print. SPAN: Bridge is to be 200 feet span between the towers and a 30 feet [sic] approach on one side as per blue print.

16This description of the bridge is taken from field measurements made by Clayton Fraser on 27 June 1994.

17There is some doubt regarding the actual commencement of work on the Klenklen Bridge. Joseph Larm remembers starting work on the bridge in August 1929, but the contract was not executed until late in September. Ei­ ther Dice began construction of the bridge before the contract was signed (which seems unlikely in view of the ongoing bidding process at that time), or Mr. Larm's recollection is imprecise by a few weeks (which is excusable after 65 years).

18The contract between J.A. Dice and Cooper County reads: This contract and agreement made and entered into this 24th day of Sep­ tember, 1929. by and between THE COUNTY COURT OF COOPER COUNTY, MISSOURI. as party of the first part and J.A. DICE of Warsaw, Missouri, as party of the second part. WITNESSETH: That the said party of the second part does hereby agree and bind himself, his heirs and legal representatives. to construct a Wire Suspen­ sion Bridge across the Lamine River in Cooper County, Sec. 20, 47-19, in accordance with the plan and specifications for said bridge attached hereto and made a part of this contract. The said party of the Second Part is to furnish and pay for all material going into said construction of said bridge. said material to be of the kind and character as outlined in said specifica­ tions, as well as for all labor going into the construction of said bridge, and

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'\ to complete said bridge in a good. workmanlike manner. for the sum of Sixty two Hundred ($6.200.00) Dollars. The party of the first part agrees to advance on account of this contract to the party of the second part. from time to time as material may arrive to go into such material. and also to pay all labor bills which may be paid out by the party of the second part for labor on said bridge. other than his own labor and material to amount to more than 50% of the contract price for said bridge. The party of the second part. agrees to commence said work not later than the 1st day of October. 1929. unless prevented by unfavorable conditions of the weather. and to prosecute said work. and to complete the same as soon as the material can be assembled. and the weather conditions will permit. When the building of said bridge is completed. in accordance with this con­ tract then the party of the first part agrees to issue warrants to the party of the second part. the remainder due him. being the sum of Sixty two Hundred ($6.200.00) Dollars. less any amounts that have been advanced on account of labor and material as aforesaid. said Warrants not to be presented for payment by the party of the second part before January 15th. 1930. The Party of the second part agrees to furnish a good and solvent bond for the faithful performance of this contract. and to file the same with the party of the first part. said bond to be in the sum of Six Thousand Dollars. And also the second page hereto attached of the "Specifications for Suspen­ sion Bridge over the Lamina River. Cooper County. Mo.· and the Blue Print of said bridge. hereto attached. to become a part of this contract as herewith signed. Party of the first part. Thos. Grathwohl. Presiding Judge Coun­ ty Court. Cooper County. Mo. Party of the Second part. J.A. Dice.

19Joseph A. Larm, Pilot Grove, Missouri, oral interview with Clayton Fraser, 27 June 1994. The subsequent discussion of the bridge's construction is derived from this interview and from two newspaper articles, both of which rely almost exclusively on interviews with Mr. Larm: James J. Fisher, "A Bridge Spanning Generations," Kansas City Star, 4 March 1994; and Tamara Wilgers, "Troubled Bridge Over Water," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, l May 1992.

20"The Builder," Benton County Enterprise.

21 Cooper County Court Record Book F, p. 406 (2 December 1929).

22Quoted by William Childress, "Swinging Bridge: It's Old and Still Grand," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 18 January 1992.

23"Hard Choices," Boonville Daily News, 22 June 1994.

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Bibliography

Benton County Enterprise, 15 May 1896, 14 August 1896.

"The Builder," Benton County Enterprise, 24 February 1947.

Childress, William. "Swinging Bridge: It's Old and Still Grand." St. Louis Post­ Dispatch, 18 January 1992.

"Contract," between Cooper County, Missouri, and J.A. Dice, 24 September 1929. Located at Cooper County Clerk's Office, Boonville, Missouri.

Cooper County Court Record: 1899-1930. Located at Cooper County Clerk's Office, Boonville, Missouri.

Faith, R.T. "Suspension Bridge, Pleasant Greene [sic], Missouri." Blueprint of construction drawing located at the Cooper County Courthouse, Boonville, Missouri.

Fisher, James J. "A Bridge Spanning Generations." Kansas City Star, 4 March 1994.

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Klenklen, Frank. Oral interview with Clayton Fraser, 26 June 1994.

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Larm, Joseph F. Oral interview with Clayton Fraser, 27 June 1994.

Lewis, Henry C., and Drake, Nathaniel M. History of Cooper County, Missouri. St. Louis: Perrin & Smith Steam Book and Job Printers, 1876.

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White, Kathleen Kelly, and Miles, Kathleen White. The History of Benton County, Missouri, Vol. 2. Warsaw, Missouri: Benton County Histor­ ical Society, 1969).

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