A Monument to Carbon County: The Fromberg Bridge

What the bridge mostly carried was sugar beets. The Historic American Engineering Record, which documented it around 1980, credits it with bringing the east bank's crop to Fromberg and its two railroads, the Northern Pacific and the Burlington, and calls it the first and only multi-span monumental reinforced concrete arch bridge built in Montana. It entered the National Register in 1993 as the oldest multi-arch concrete bridge in the state. The Library of Congress record of that survey lists the bridge demolished in 2006.

What the plaque says

A Monument to Carbon County: The Fromberg Bridge The old Fromberg Bridge was the crowning achievement of Carbon County's concrete bridge program in the early 20th century. Completed in 1915, the graceful arches across the Clark's Fork were the first such use of reinforced concrete in Montana. Proximity of the Gibson Concrete Works in Fromberg offered the county this rare opportunity to experiment. Founder John Gibson, a pioneer in concrete building techniques, supplied the cement for the massive structure. Gibson manufactured cement building and chimney blocks, ornamental cornices and columns, and a nationally recognized sectional concrete culvert he invented and patented. The Beley Construction Company of Livingston won the $10,000 contract and construction began in May 1914. The bridge was a critical link that allowed farmers, ranchers, and their children on the east side of the Clark's Fork access to the railroad station and school at Fromberg. For a time during its construction, students had to ford the river to get to school. The bridge opened to traffic in January 1915. The multi-span, solid arch structure was 219 feet long, the largest of its kind in Montana. Ornamental detailing embellished the sidewalls of the arches and the guardwalls flanking the narrow deck. The Fromberg Herald boasted that every citizen would "feel a degree of pride in the knowledge that they helped bring to Fromberg the largest concrete bridge in the great Treasure State!" The Fromberg Concrete Arch Bridge, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, eventually succumbed to old age. The Department of Transportation replaced it in the early 21st century. Plaque provided by the Montana Historical Society and the Montana Department of Transportation, 2004

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Chief Plenty Coups State Park — 18 mi
  The log house of the last traditional chief of the Apsáalooke, given in 1928 as a park for Crow and white people together.
• Smith Mine — 21 mi
  Rusting buildings beside the highway, all that is left of the mine where Montana's worst coal disaster emptied a valley.

More markers nearby

• The Pryor Mountains — 3.8 mi
• The Pryor Mountains and Raptor Country — 3.8 mi
• Jim Bridger, Mountain Man — 7.0 mi
• A Trail Woefully Hard to Travel: The Bridger Cut-Off — 7.8 mi