A Bridge Too Close

Fred Peterson offered the idea of modifying a Peterson Builders barge as a temporary bridge over the canal. Herb Reynolds photos, 1960, courtesy of the Door County Historical Museum and Archives.

by JOHN MIELKE

Peninsula Pulse contributor

When a massive container ship struck and demolished the Francis Scott Key Bridge near Baltimore in the early morning hours of March 26, the accident rekindled memories for many in the Door County community, memories that reached back almost 60 years.

Oct. 21, 1960 was a chilly Friday by reported accounts. Fritz Van Duyse was the bridge tender at the Sturgeon Bay Highway Bridge, as it was known then (now the Steel Bridge). He had opened the bridge to allow the Swedish freighter Carlsholm to pass.

As the ship drew closer and struggled to navigate the tricky turn to clear the old Ahnapee and Western Railway Bridge, Van Duyse had a front-row seat for the impending collision. Reports from the Oct. 25, 1960 edition of the Door County Advocate credit Van Duyse with rushing out of the bridgetender’s cabin and shouting at people sitting in their cars to get off the bridge. 

The Carlsholm struck the lift mechanism, making it impossible for the bridge to be fully lowered. The Advocate reported that for many years, Sturgeon Bay residents on the west side joked that they were mainlanders and their neighbors on the east side were islanders. In a matter of moments, it was no longer a joke; the east and west sides of Sturgeon Bay might as well have been miles apart. 

Before 1931, people and commerce relied on either toll ferries or the railroad bridge – which also served as a toll bridge for pedestrians, visitors, farm equipment and even farm animals – to cross the channel. Construction on the Highway Bridge (Steel Bridge) began in 1929 and it was officially opened in July 1931.

After nearly 30 years, some may have taken the bridge for granted. Once it was no longer operable, its value was quickly recognized. The Advocate reported that not long after the bridge was struck, an expectant mother on the west side with a baby on the way needed to get to Memorial Hospital on the east side. Thankfully, a small excursion boat was available and a waiting ambulance did the rest.

Dennis Starr was a sophomore at Sturgeon Bay High School in 1960. He said what had been automatic – getting from one side to the other – now took some thought.

“People had to figure it out; everybody had to adjust,” he said. 

Those adjustments began immediately. Oct. 22, 1960, the day after the bridge was struck, was Sturgeon Bay High School’s homecoming. Starr lived on the east side, his date on the west side. The football game was on the east side, the homecoming dinner at Samuelson’s on the west side. Thanks to the Washington Island Ferry Line (WIFL), the game and dinner took place as scheduled. 

Richard Purinton, WIFL CEO, said the CG Richter ferry was underway within an hour of the bridge collision. The Voyageur, a 65-foot open-deck ferry that was new in 1960, arrived the following day. That left the Griffin as the remaining ferry servicing Washington Island.

“Arni Richter’s [the ferry lines’ co-founder with his father, Carl] brother-in-law, attorney Herman Leasum, was also Sturgeon Bay city attorney,” Purinton said. “His initial call to Arni got things started immediately after the bridge went out.” 

Purinton, who today is retired from daily commitments at WIFL, was just 14 and lived in Sturgeon Bay at the time of the bridge accident. “Within a few days, as I recall, the two sides of the [bridge] draw were cranked down to a difference of approximately 4 feet,” he said. “A set of wooden steps was installed, which enabled foot traffic to cross. Prior to this innovation, all pedestrian traffic had to cross by ferry, as did vehicles.”

The CG Richter could carry eight to nine cars with the Voyageur handling 10 to 12. The Voyageur was used for trailers and larger trucks. “Due to the apple harvest, daily dairy products, and other timely cargo moving on trucks, [that] caused a considerable back-up on either side of the bay much of the time,” Purinton said.

When it became apparent that it might be some time before repairs would be made and traffic-flow restored, Fred Peterson offered the idea of modifying a Peterson Builders barge as a temporary bridge. The Advocate described the temporary bridge as a 96-foot flat steel barge with 40-foot connecting ramps at either end. The barge bridge went into service about a week after the initial collision.

“My father, Harry Purinton, received the assignment from R.A. Stearn, Inc., naval architects, to engineer and design the steel sections that filled the gaps [between the barge and the sides of the ship canal],” Purinton said. “According to my dad, Fred Peterson said he wanted this done ‘ASAP.’ Dad and I made a trip east in the bay in our 12-foot motorboat, so that my dad could observe the installation as the first vehicles transited over the new, temporary, barge bridge.”

Roads were cut in and graveled on either side of the ship canal to bring traffic to the new crossing point. On the west side, about a mile of scrub woodland was bulldozed. The connection on the east side was much shorter. Even though the barge bridge was just one lane, the Advocate reported that traffic moved rather efficiently.

The CG Richter was then released back to Washington Island. The Voyageur continued in service a few more days before it, too, was released.

David Johnson was a deckhand aboard the Voyageur at the time, working a 12-hour day shift. 

“We hauled nothing but milk trucks all morning long,” he said. 

Johnson remembered Arni Richter enlisting the help of Great Lakes Captain Doug Foss to pilot the Voyageur. Richter, Dave Lucke and Nathan Gunnlaugsson also served as captains. 

As they worked to keep the city and county connected, Johnson said everyone associated with the ferries was treated very well by Sturgeon Bay residents. 

“Every night we’d go to Lenny’s [Restaurant] and have supper,” Johnson said. “They had good food. We stayed at the [Hotel] Roxanna. They would bring us lunch for noon. They were awfully good to us.” The day of the accident, Bob Conlon was on the east-side approach to the bridge. He said he did not feel the impact but did remember people on the bridge running from their cars. Later, Conlon worked helping pedestrians navigate the wooden staircase that had been installed between the bridge draws.

Marianne Weis (now Marianne Quam) will never forget when the bridge was struck because the day after was her wedding day to Carlton Quam. Her friend, Mary Reynolds (now Aiken), was working in Milwaukee and drove back to Sturgeon Bay to be one of the bridesmaids. When Mary arrived that afternoon, she was surprised to find that getting to her parents’ home on the east side wasn’t going to be so easy. She left her car on the west side, hopped on a boat, and met her dad, Herb Reynolds, on the other side. Herb was a photographer for the Advocate and was hired to be the wedding photographer.

The morning before the wedding, Marianne and Carlton thought the bridge would be fixed by nighttime. They went across on a ferry to the Quam house figuring it would be easy to return. When they couldn’t get back, that left Marianne on one side and her wedding dress on the other.

The solution: “Mary’s father hired the Lollipop, which was not too big of a boat, and they brought my dress across,” Marianne said. 

She dressed in the basement of St. Peter’s Lutheran Church on the west side.

“After [the ceremony] we took the Lollipop back across to go to the reception, which was at the Nightingale,” Marianne said. “So, it was quite a day. It was a day you’ll never forget.”

But not everyone remembered everything. 

“I forgot my shoes at the church,” her bridesmaid recalled – and somebody had to go back across and get Mary’s shoes.