The Wrong Side of the River
from The Dave Bowman Show
The Milwaukee Bridge War of 1845 was not your typical civic dispute. It was an all-out brawl over infrastructure, fueled by ambition, greed, and a fundamental refusal to cooperate. The drama played out between three distinct settlements: Solomon Juneau’s Juneautown on the east side of the Milwaukee River, Byron Kilbourn’s Kilbourntown to the west, and George Walker’s Walker’s Point to the south. These communities had developed independently, each with its own layout, leadership, and economic interests, and they weren’t particularly fond of working together.
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