Okoboji Bridge, Spanning Strait betweent East & West Okoboji Lakes, U.S.Highway 71, Okoboji, Dickinson County, IA

Significance: Built in 1929, the Okoboji Bridge is one of only four cantilevered concrete girders known to remain in use on Iowa's highways. Employed where a simpler, less costly steel stringer span would have sufficed, the bridge represents an affinity for concrete construction and an uncharacteristic commitment to aesthetics on the part of the Iowa State Highway Commission. The structure is also noteworthy as the latest in a series of spans over the strait between East and West Okoboji Lakes - the oldest bridged crossing in Dickinson County. The present Okoboji Bridge and its five timber and steel predecessors represent a continuum of bridge construction stretching back more than 130 years, providing insight into the evolution of bridge technology.
Survey number: HAER IA-40
Building/structure dates: 1929 Initial Construction
National Register of Historic Places NRIS Number: 98000789