115-Year-Old Last Remaining Wyoming Steel Truss Bridge Put Outt To Pasture

The historic 115-year-old Monarch Bridge, the last steel truss bridge in the Wyoming, was officially retired last week and put out to pasture. It once provided thousands of miners and tons of coal a passageway across the Tongue River northeast of Sheridan.

Dale Killingbeck
June 16, 2024



After 115 years, Wyoming's only remaining steel truss bridge, Monarch Bridge near Sheridan, has officially been retired. (Wyoming Department of Transportation via YouTube)

The last remaining old steel truss bridge in Wyoming never really failed, it was retired and literally put out to pasture last week northeast of Sheridan.

The Wyoming Department of Transportation and Sheridan County Road and Bridge are replacing the original 115-year-old Monarch Bridge across the Tongue River that once saw thousands of miners and tons of coal safely across when it led to one of the state’s most important and largest underground coal mines during the early decades of the last century.

Sheridan WYDOT Resident Engineer Jake Whisonant said that according to known records, the structure was the “the oldest steel truss bridge of its kind on a WYDOT or county road system in the state.”

He said the visual aesthetics of the bridge and its history have led to an effort to preserve it on land adjacent to the river. A photo shows the bridge removed and sitting on concrete in a pasture-like setting.
“We don’t construct truss bridges now because the technology has advanced and there are cheaper and more efficient ways to do it,” he said. “But those old truss bridges look pretty cool.”

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