Second Street Bridge, The

This simply ornamented wrought iron bridge was built in 1886. It replaced an earlier wooden one that had begun to fall into disrepair. Designed by the King Iron Bridge and Manufacturing Company of Cleveland, Ohio, the double intersection Pratt truss bridge was completed at a cost of $7,532.25. Eighteen feet wide and spanning 225 feet of the Kalamazoo River, it is one of the largest extant bridges designed by the firm. Following a battle by city officials and local citizens to save the bridge from demolition, it was restored at a cost of $552,000 in 1983. The bridge was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.