The Pend Oreille River put early residents of Metaline and Metaline Falls in a predicament. There were plenty of reasons to cross the river, but no easy way across it. The most obvious and reliable way was by ferry, but it required a toll, came with a degree of risk given its close proximity to the falls, and was not particularly fast. In the winter when the ice had thickened to a point of relative safety, town residents could simply walk across the river, but stories of horses breaking through the ice led them to proceed with caution.

Given the choices, the local population soon began to clamor for a bridge. The commercial and industrial advantages of it were unmistakable. In 1916, the Pend Oreille County Commission began to promote these advantages, but a bridge required a substantial investment, and at the time, the State of Washington only funded bridges that served state highways. Nevertheless, a breakthrough came in 1919 when the Washington legislature passed a measure allowing counties to grant franchises for toll bridges. Almost immediately, a local sawmill owner secured the Metaline bridge franchise and organized a corporation to finance it. On November 20, 1920, Metaline and Metaline Falls dedicated their first bridge.

Built of steel and towering nearly 100 feet above the river, the toll bridge included a 360 foot center span and extended a total length of 600 feet. The one-lane bridge proved as beneficial as advertised. The seemingly vast geography that had once separated Metaline and Metaline Falls could now be traversed in a couple minutes, making the timber and mineral resources on the west side of the river easily accessible. In 1930, the state bought the bridge and removed its toll. Two decades later, the state built a two-lane concrete bridge to replace the original, finally providing a seamless flow of traffic across the river. The company hired to dismantle the original bridge sold it to Sanders County, Montana, where it was recommissioned to span the Clark Fork River at Heron, Montana.

Credits and Sources:

Axline, Jon. Historic American Engineering Record, “Heron Bridge Spanning the Clark Fork River and Cabinet Gorge.” HAER No. MT-142. Denver: Rocky Mountain System Support Office, National Park Service, October 2010.

Bamonte, Tony, and Susan Schaeffer Bamonte. History of Pend Oreille County. Spokane: Tornado Creek Publications, 1996.

Unknown. “Granted Bridge Franchises.” The Miner, July 24, 1919.

Photographs courtesy of the Pend Oreille County Historical Society and Pend Oreille County Library District.