Postcard Main Street Bridge Ottawa

Main Street Bridge 1910

Hello Winnie Clemmons

Main Street Bridge 1910

Before the flood wiped it away, the Main Street Bridge was a Pratt Truss style bridge. Truss because the structure consists of connected triangular elements. It is called Pratt because the truss includes vertical members and diagonals that slope down towards the center.

This bridge (1885 -1926) is actually the second bridge to cross the Marais de Cygnes River. An earlier suspension bridge crossed the river (1868-1885). Ottawa Herald, 1961. History of Bridges of Ottawa.

The Postcard

I also thought it interesting to read the postcard. It  was written January 19, 1910, by an unidentified Ina to Miss Winnie Clemmons in Floris, Oklahoma. Ina lived on a farm, took in boarders to help support the family (two more boarders "that makes us ten"), and was going to town, probably by horse and carriage, to get something for supper.

The postcard came from the Model 10Cent Store at 117 E. 2nd.

Parks Annals

This postcard was mailed in January 1910.

Later, the summer of the same year, Teddy Roosevelt and Williams Jennings Bryan would appear in Ottawa at Forest Park, but at separate times. In September, a "talkie", a moving picture with sound came to the Crystal Theater. (As the Jazz Singer did not come out until 1926, I am not exactly sure what this means.) In October, the fighting Ottawa University football team held the University of Kansas to a low score of 10 to 0. Parks Annals.