During the year 1874 the board of supervisors appropriated $8,000 for the B avenue bridge and the citizens subscribed $22,000, of which sum N. B. Brown subscribed $5,000, George Greene $4,000, William Greene $4,000, Higley estate $2,000. A contract was let for the bridge in September, 1874, in the amount of $28,500; other additions were made, making the bridge cost about $32,000.
Fourteenth avenue bridge, known as the James street bridge, was begun in August, 1875, and completed in December of the same year at a total cost of $27,000. The county appropriated for this bridge $11,500, the city $6,000, and the property owners paid $9,500, T. M. Sinclair paying the largest amount.
The First avenue bridge was constructed in 1884 at a cost of about $25,000, the bridge being opened for traffic in November, 1884.
The Second avenue bridge, being a cement bridge with railings, cost about $110,000, and was opened for traffic in December, 1905.
The new Fourteenth avenue, or James street, bridge was commenced by the Union Construction Company in 1909, and completed in the spring of 1910 at a cost of about $80,000.
EARLY STEAMBOATING ON THE CEDAR
The following account of some early steamboating adventures on the Cedar river is from the pen of B. L. Wick, and is taken from the first volume of the Proceedings of the Historical Society of Linn county. It is of interest.
The subject matter of steamboating on the Cedar will scarcely attract any attention today and means only a pleasure jaunt with more or less inconvenience among sandbars on the upper river. However, historically speaking, steamboating on this river was an epoch-making period for this section of the country, and the prosperity of our city was due in a large measure, to our dam, our grist, saw and woolen mills; and to our steamboat traffic. These industries made Cedar Rapids.
It has been said that the history of a town is frequently the history of a great river. This is true of nearly all the great European cities and is equally true of the great marts of commerce in this country. The great Father of Waters has, however, played an important part in the development of the middle west, of which great body of water the Red Cedar is one of its many tributaries. It has been stated that this great river system has 16,000 miles of navigable waters, and it is further the river along whose banks at least three of the European powers have contested for the extension of territory. I shall leave this discussion out of the question, and confine myself to one of its many branches—the Red Cedar.
It was not till August 7, 1807, that Robert Fulton propelled the Clermont up the Hudson by means of steam navigation at the rate of five miles an hour, and solved forever, the great question of water navigation. It was not long till the inventor and his friend, Livingston, extended their operations to the great west, and began building steamboats at Pittsburg, and on December 6, 1812, the "Orleans" of 400 tons burden, was the first steamer which made the trip to New Orleans, and thus opened up the newly acquired possessions. This boat was commanded by W. I. Roosevelt, a sturdy ancestor of a worthy descendant.