This Day in North Idaho History, March 3, 1934

March 3, 1934, second version of the Long Bridge connecting Sandpoint and Sagle is dedicated.

The first bridge to span Lake Pend Oreille was built in 1908 and lasted 25 years.  The next bridge construction was a project of the WPA, Works Project Administration at a cost of $160,000.  The bridge was just short of 2 miles and was known for years as the world's longest wooden bridge.

Construction wasn't without problems.  Five thousand pounds of steel to be used for girders was dropped into 20 feet of water at Dover when the boom being used to load it onto a barge broke.

The fourth and current bridge was completed in 1981.  The third bridge is next to the main one and is now used by walkers, runners and bicyclists.

The Long Bridge is also the site of the Long Bridge Swim the first Saturday in August.

North Idaho Urban Legends, Underground Rivers

Is there really an underground river between Lake Coeur d'Alene and Hayden Lake?  Or is it between Hayden and Pend O'reille?  Or is it just a really great old story?  Decades ago the story was heard a lot.  Perhaps science has quelled the mystery, bummer.

If you were a kid growing up in the 50's or 60's you knew the tale.  Or at least one version of it.  Yes, it was lore and legend of how the body of a man who drown in Lake Coeur d'Alene was discovered in Hayden Lake.  Or drown in Hayden and found in Pend O'reille?  Or any combination of these. Sometimes Priest Lake was even thrown into a version.

Now it s true that these lakes are connected in a way.  It's called the Rathdrum Aquifer.  Doubtful a body could move from one lake to another, but, the water itself is a different story.  There has to be H2O molecules that have seeped from Hayden into the aquifer.  Perhaps that same molecule is picked up by a City of Coeur d'Alene water pump.  And that same little molecule comes out a hose to wash a car.  Then that water flows down the gutter and into the storm drain where it eventualy ends up in Lake Coeur d'Alene or the Spokane River.

It could happen.