Main Street Bridge (Racine, Wisconsin)

The Main Street Bridge is a bridge in Racine, Wisconsin that carries Main Street over the Root River, connecting downtown Racine to the north side of the city. North of the bridge, the street it carries is known as North Main Street. A series of different structures have served this purpose since the first Main Street bridge was built in 1838. The current bridge was constructed in 1996.

History
The first fixed crossing of the Root River in Racine was built at the location of Main Street in 1838, after the funding was authorized by Wisconsin governor two years prior. This bridge was washed away during a storm in spring 1843, and another bridge was not constructed at the site until 1876. Until then, travelers crossed the river by ferry, or on a rickety pedestrian bridge in the approximate location of the current State Street Bridge.

Major Ira C. Paine was one of the strongest advocates for the construction of a Main Street bridge. In 1862, he later wrote that he had "procured the passage of a law to enable the City Council to erect such a bridge," but the bridge was not built for several years. Beginning in 1873, he wrote a series of editorials in the Racine County Argus arguing that the lack of a convenient Root River crossing was holding back Racine's development. By 1875, the Racine city council was debating whether and where to build a railroad and pedestrian bridge across the river. An editorial in the Argus accused some of the aldermen of opposing the bridge because the cost of building and maintaining it would raise their taxes, and also alleged that some aldermen were deliberately advocating for the bridge to be built in an inconvenient location to prevent it from actually being built. An iron swing bridge was ultimately built at Main Street in 1876 for $10,690.