Blue Star Highway bridge articles

part 1

The Making of the Blue Star Bridge Provided Big Boost to Area Workers by Wayne Weed (Ed. note: As the renovation of the Blue Star Highway bridge over the Kalamazoo River nears, we are indebted to one of the men who worked on the existing structure for a personal view of what it was like, late in the Depression, on the biggest job for miles around.) It was no doubt inevitable that some day the old swing bridge and its companion, the stationary bridge at the other end of a willow-shaded causeway, would be replaced. The first bridges between the villages were said to have been built about 1869 with the swing bridge installed at a later date in 1903. They were well-suited to the needs of their day. In only a few decades, however, the river commerce of former years had disappeared. No longer was it necessary to offer clearance to steamers that could make their way up the Kalamazoo as far as Allegan. As the years progressed, small motor craft of varying types would become the rule upon the river. There are probably those who remember approaching the river at a time some boat came into view that would require an opening of the swing bridge. Volunteers would often go on the bridge as the barriers dropped to assist the bridge tender. Everyone then pushed,