| Additional Information: | 2023:
The Clermont Street Bridge (P-34-708) was constructed over Spring Brook in 1935.It is a north-south trending two-span concrete deck girder and flat slab bridge with full retaining wall abutments constructed of poured concrete. The two spans are supported on a central concrete shaft pier with spread footings. The spans measure approximately 12.4 feet and 21.1 feet in length. The deck is approximately 62 feet wide. Guardrails flank either side of the bridge and consist of concrete posts that support two lengths of tubular metal rails. The Clermont Street Bridge was abandoned in 1996 when 10th Avenue was reconstructed as a through street via the extant east-west trending 10th Avenue Bridge (B-34-034) over Spring Brook. The Clermont Street Bridge was left in situ to serve as a pedestrian bridge. The deck has since been covered or reclaimed by grass. A new sidewalk has been constructed along the west side of the bridge.
The Clermont Street Bridge is associated with federal work relief projects funded by the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) and, subsequently, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in the City of Antigo. In 1934, FERA funds were allocated to widen and construct new bridges over Spring Brook in the City of Antigo for which the $30,000 of FERA funding was to pay for labor. According to the Antigo Daily Journal, the project was to include bridges across Clermont Street, Superior Street, Milton Street, Eighth Avenue, Sixth Avenue, Fifth Avenue, Fourth Avenue, Hudson Street, and Watson Street. Visual appearance and the Historic Structure Inventory record for P-34-702 indicate that the Seventh Avenue bridge may also have been constructed under the same project. Of the nine or ten bridges constructed using federal work relief funding in the City of Antigo, six remain extant. Of these, the Hudson Street Bridge (P-34-711) stands apart as a three-span concrete arch closed spandrel bridge that is clad in stone whereas the remainder, including the Clermont Street Bridge, are indicative of a standardized plan. Reportedly, the federal work relief programs provided over $500,000 to the City of Antigo for numerous projects throughout the New Deal administration including the aforementioned bridges, streambank maintenance along Spring Brook, and the extant Art Deco style water treatment plant (not previously surveyed). According to the Langlade County Historical Society, “The water plant, built in 1938, was the largest construction project undertaken in Antigo up to that time. It cost $177,000 and the federal PWA program funded 49 percent of its cost. …” |
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| Bibliographic References: | "Antigo FERA Work Projects Call for $30,000 in Labor” The Antigo Daily Journal (Antigo, WI) 17 August 1934: front page.
Joe Hermolin, Antigo Landmarks, (Antigo, WI: Langlade Historical Society, n.d.), 19.
Joe Hermolin, “The Great Depression in Langlade County” Wisconsin 101 (Madison, WI: Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System, 2023). Available at: https://wi101.wisc.edu/the-great-depression-in-langlade-county/
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