Bridges Of Missoula, Past And Present

by Travis Mateer

The original Higgins bridge in Missoula, not to mention the building this picture was taken from (the Penwell building), was designed by a woman named Josephine Kennedy, and her husband’s name was John, so John Kennedy. Funny. Also, Josephine is the name of my little girl, so I was a little surprised to come across her name in this Missoula Current article about the Penwell building a few days ago.

Instead of quoting a Kidston piece, here’s an excerpt from a different source that I scrolled through 27 pages to find:

Josephine (Stark) Kennedy was also a well-known architect in western Montana, designing several buildings to include the Sacajawea Lodge, of which she owned. She was married to J. H. Kennedy, a contractor, builder and architect who sold real estate and insurance when he first arrived in Missoula. Josephine took over his office, running “Kennedy & Forbis” out of the First National Bank building after his death in 1916. Josephine was a direct descendent of the Civil War hero General Stark, a prominent member of the Eastern Star, and a Missoula resident for approximately 33 years. She passed away in 1922.

I’ve written MANY posts about bridges, so I filed away this factoid in case MORE bridge developments emerged, and guess what? They quickly did!

Before I get to those more recent bridge developments, I have been meaning to note that the cost of rehabilitating the Northside pedestrian bridge has increased. Remember, this project was said to be a TOP priority for our placeholder Mayor, Jordan Hess, but now he’ll just have to watch the progress continue like the rest of us as Mayor Davis acclimates to her new role. From the link:

Council members on Wednesday approved two change orders related to the work, including an additional $259,000 related to winter scheduling and $56,000 for city permitting and changing construction needs.

“We’re running into a lot more rust than we thought we would,” said David Selvage, the city’s superintendent of park services and systems. “We’re re-sequencing our fair-weather work to the spring. We’re providing an allowance to do cold-weather work for the extra costs. We could get some of that back, but we’re not going to step over a dollar to pick up a dime.”

The maligned bridge was built just 24 years ago but quickly fell into disrepair as structure elements began to fail. The city closed the bridge last year for safety reasons and is eager to get it reopened, calling it a vital link between the Northside neighborhood and downtown Missoula.

Another bridge in Missoula recently got some attention from a reporter who is back in Missoula, a bridge I refer to as THE BRIDGE TO NO WHERE. Here is the Facebook post that got my attention:

Ok, so we’ve got the Higgins Bridge represented in this post, the Northside bridge, and the bridge to no where commented on by a reporter named Madison, which makes me think about the MADISON bridge and how its crumbling infrastructure closed sidewalks in 2016.

And then there’s the single-lane Maclay bridge, which I was barred from crossing on Saturday night at 1:45am for some unknown reason. Was there an accident? When I went by the next day, it was open again, and no one at the Rural Fire District station had any indication of it being closed for any reason.

The Maclay bridge is a great example of local government bodies exhibiting utter failure on an important piece of infrastructure in a growing part of the Missoula valley. I found an old Facebook post and took a screenshot of a well-informed commenter who had this to say:

For more context on the Maclay bridge, and why it pisses me off so much, check out thees posts:

Dave Strohmaier Has A Bridge Problem And That Means I Have A Problem With Dave Strohmaier–BUILD THE BRIDGE! (March 13th, 2019)

County Commissioner Dave Strohmaier Is Supporting The Agenda Of The South Street Bridge Obstructionists (October 14th, 2019)

A Retired Civil Structural Engineer Claims Maclay Bridge Should Be Condemned In Letter To Editor (October 28th, 2019)

Countering Maclay Bridge BS (November 20th, 2019)

Why Are Missoula Bridges Plagued With Problems? (July 14th, 2021)

If you appreciate my local perspective, Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF) is still accepting donations. And stay tuned to this post, because if I figure out why the orange cones were up at 1:45am, I’ll put it in the comments.

Thanks for reading!