South Omaha Veterans Memorial Bridge
The South Omaha Veterans Memorial Bridge carries U.S. Route 275 over the Missouri River connecting Omaha, Nebraska with Council Bluffs, Iowa.
Original bridge
The old bridge was a continuous Warren through-truss bridge that was long and provided a clear roadway width of only.Omaha floated a $2 million bond issue for the bridge in 1931. However, when the bonds did not sell, the Omaha Bridge Commission was formed to secure financing from the Public Works Administration. The initial design by the Kansas City architects Ash, Howard, Needles and Tammen called for the bridge to have seven spans. However, when the War Department announced plans to reroute the river channel, the design was changed to two, continuously supported, Warren through spans and a series of Warren deck truss approach spans.It was built by the Kansas City Bridge Company opening on January 18, 1936. It is wide and long. The piers were initially on dry land, since the river had not been rerouted. Tolls on the bridge were discontinued on September 25, 1947.
The bridge provided a much-needed direct route across the Missouri River to the Omaha Stockyards for livestock delivery trucks. Before the South Omaha Bridge was built trucks had to cross the Douglas Street Bridge and drive through downtown Omaha to reach the packinghouse district.
It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992. In 1995, it was renamed from the South Omaha Bridge to the Veterans Memorial Bridge. In November 2006 Nebraska placed a 5-ton vehicle limit on the bridge. On June 11, 2008, an additional height restriction requiring vehicles to be under was imposed.
On September 8, 2009, at 9 am CDT, the bridge closed so that the new bridge's construction could continue. The original bridge was completely demolished by March 2010 and removed from the NRHP in 2011.