Monroe Street Bridge Plaques - Spokane, WA
Posted by: T0SHEA
N 47° 39.629 W 117° 25.590
11T E 467976 N 5278653
In the pavilions on the Monroe Street Bridge are bronze plaques, briefly outlining local history between 1811, the year of the founding of the first outpost in the area and 1871, the year of the beginning of the City of Spokane.
Waymark Code: WMJHGW
Location: Washington, United States
Date Posted: 11/20/2013
Views: 3
In 1810 or 1811 the Northwest Company built Spokane House, a fur trading post, on the Spokane River, to the west of this location. It was also at this time that the explorer David Thompson passed through the region for the first time, mapping the Pacific Northwest.
In 1838 the reverend Cushing Eels arrived in the area and established a protestant mission thirty miles to the northwest.
In 1853 the first governor of Washington, Isaac I. Stevens, viewed the Spokane River Falls from near this location.
In 1858, Colonel George Wright, after defeating an allied force of Indian Tribes north of the Snake River, marched his troops past this point.
In 1860 the first ferry across the Spokane River was operated by James Monaghan.
In 1866 Reverend Father J.M. Cataldo opened a Catholic Mission ten miles northeast of this location.
In 1871 the first settlement at Spokane Falls was established.
And the rest, as they say, is history. In 2003, the bridge underwent major renovations, with much of it being totally rebuilt. It was then that the plaques were mounted.