What it Takes to Build a Bridge in the QC 50 Years Ago

Imagine what it takes to build a bridge. Now imagine what it was like to build one over 50 years ago.

With the excitement (and all the construction) that's been slowly, but surely, happening around the downtown Bettendorf area in anticipation of the new I-74 bridge, it had me going down that curious trail of questions like:

What does it take to build a bridge?

I wonder what it was like to build the first one?

I got on the wonderful world of Facebook and up popped an amazing video from the Retro Quad Cities page. This video shows the construction and opening celebration of the Centennial Bridge in Rock Island. What a great piece of history for the Quad Cities.

With all the technology and equipment we have now, I'm sure constructing a bridge is a bit easier but watching how it was done over 50 years ago is nothing shy of amazing.