Imagine standing at the foot of Ames Avenue in the summer of 1892, looking east across the dappled waters of cutoff lake toward Courtland Beach. In the distance, you can hear a band playing in the pavilion, the laughter of bathers along the boardwalk, and the rumble of a switchback railway. For decades, an strong timber trestle crossed Carter Lake here, connecting the Sherman neighborhood of North Omaha to the island-like world of Carter Lake. This is the history of the Ames Avenue Bridge over Carter Lake.

The Great Flood and the Island

Before there was an Ames Avenue Bridge, there was the Great Flood of 1877. That spring, a raging Missouri River cut through Saratoga Bend, carving out an oxbow lake that locals called Cut-Off Lake and what we know today as Carter Lake.

The cutoff left a spit of land stranded on the Nebraska side of the river that was legally claimed by Iowa. Despite the jurisdictional fights between the two states, Omaha boosters and real estate speculators saw gold in the lake. By the late 1880s, an east coast amusement park operator named Frank D. Kent had opened Courtland Beach, turning the lake shore into the premier summertime resort in the Omaha area.

As late as 1950, Ames Avenue continued due east from the Saratoga neighborhood straight down the hill past North 16th Street instead of ending at Commercial Avenue. But in the late 19th century, if you wanted to reach the resort from North Omaha, you had to take a long carriage detour through the swampy bottoms by Locust Street. City boosters, county officials, and resort managers knew they needed a direct line across the water.

The Politics and the Push Across the Lake

In early 1892, plans took shape to construct a combined timber wagon and rail bridge over the southern arm of Cut-Off Lake, running right along the eastern extension of Ames Avenue over to Avenue R in Carter Lake, which was originally called Ames Avenue too.

The project required more than 1,600 feet of timber pilings, split between Douglas County and the City of Omaha. Douglas County agreed to build the eastern 1,200 feet reaching out toward Courtland Beach, while the City of Omaha took responsibility for the 400-foot western approach from the foot of Ames Avenue.

In January 1892, Frank Maho was awarded an initial $6,000 contract to begin work. By February, Omaha’s Board of Public Works opened bids for the city’s 400-foot timber span, awarding the job to Raymond Brothers over bidder H. B. Mayo.

Politics quickly stalled the project. In late February, hundreds of Omaha citizens petitioned Mayor George P. Bemis, demanding that the city move forward to capture thousands of recreation dollars for the local economy. On March 2, 1892, Douglas County Commissioners publicly vented their disgust at the Omaha City Council for hesitating over boundary lines. County crews had already driven pilings out into the lake, and commissioners warned that if the city did not build its western connection, the county’s 1,200-foot structure would sit stranded in the middle of the water.

The pressure worked. Construction moved quickly through the spring, and by June 22, 1892, the structure was ready for inspection. Road grading was finished by September 21, 1892, officially opening the Ames Avenue Bridge to wagon, buggy, and pedestrian traffic.

The Easter Sunday Tornado of 1913

For more than 15 years, the bridge served its purpose faithfully. Pedestrians and wagons from the booming north end of Omaha came across and enjoyed their bridge.

However, the reign of the bridge came to a sudden, violent end on March 23, 1913. On that tragic Easter Sunday, a massive tornado ripped through North Omaha and across Carter Lake, devastating the community from 40th and Farnam through the 24th and Lake historic district, cutting straight across Saratoga down toward the lake.

The tornado slammed directly into the Illinois Central bridge and the nearby roundhouse, tearing the timber spans apart and tossing heavy track and pilings into Carter Lake.

The destruction was total. Because the railroad companies had developed other rail corridors around East Omaha, the Illinois Central never rebuilt the bridge. For the next two decades, jagged wooden piers and rotting timber stubs stood abandoned in the water, a silent ghost of the 1913 storm.

The CCC Left a Hint

By the 1930s, the decaying bridge had become an eyesore and a boating hazard. The Carter Lake Development Society pushed for a general shoreline beautification plan and petitioned the city to demolish the remaining ruins.

A dispute broke out in 1936 when Omaha City Commissioner Joseph B. Hummel announced he would not comply with an agreement made by the previous city council to spend Park Department money tearing down the old Illinois Central bridge. Hummel told Mayor Dan B. Butler that city funds could not legally be spent because the railroad still held rights to reclaim the right-of-way.

The logjam was broken when federal relief stepped in. Workers from the Carter Lake Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Camp took on the task in 1936, systematically pulling out the rotting pilings and clearing the lake channel.

Instead of erasing the structure entirely, the CCC refurbished the bridge’s western approach into an earthen fishing pier and boat landing, lining it with concrete block retaining walls and planting trees.

The Pleasure Pier to Today

In the 1950s, a private investor revamped the old western approach into the Carter Lake Pleasure Pier. Complete with a concession booth, dance floor, and the nearby Carter Lake Kiddieland amusement park, the pier enjoyed another decade as a popular community gathering spot.

Today, the original western approach to the Ames Avenue Bridge is still intact. If you travel to the intersection of Ames Avenue and Carter Lake Shore Drive West, you can walk out onto the fishing pier that once formed the entrance to the bridge. On the Carter Lake, Iowa side, near Wavecrest Park and Shoreline Drive, no trace of the eastern terminus remains. Neither side has a historical marker, but the pier remains a lasting physical footprint of North Omaha’s 1892 connection to Courtland Beach and the vanished Illinois Central trestle.

Special thanks to Ryan Roenfeld for his contributions to this article.

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MY ARTICLES ABOUT THE HISTORY OF EAST OMAHA
SEE ALSO: East Omaha History Tour
AREAS: Town of East Omaha | Carter Lake | Winspear Triangle | North Omaha Bottoms | Sherman | Sulphur Springs | Edgewood Park | Bungalow City | Squatter’s Row | Lakewood Gardens | East Omaha Factory District
BUSINESSES: East Omaha Truck Farms | Spanggaard Dairy | Carter White Lead Company | Nite Hawkes Cafe | Railroads
CARTER LAKE, IOWA: Courtland Beach | Omaha Rod and Gun Club | Carter Lake Club | Sand Point Beach and Lakeview Amusement Park | Omaha Auto Speedway | Lakeside Raceway |
CARTER LAKE PARK: Municipal Beach | Bungalow City | Pleasure Pier and Kiddieland | CCC Camp
PEOPLE: Selina Carter Cornish | Levi Carter | Granny Weatherford
TRANSPORTATION: Ames Avenue Bridge | Eppley Airfield | 16th and Locust Streets | JJ Pershing Drive | North 16th Street | Paine Airfield | Locust Street Viaduct | East Omaha Bridge
SCHOOLS: Beechwood School | Pershing School | Sherman School | St. Therese Catholic School
OTHER: The Burning Lady | St. Therese Catholic Church | 1898 Trans-Mississippi Exposition

Listen to our podcast “A History of East Omaha” online now!

MY ARTICLES RELATED TO THE HISTORY OF AMES AVENUE
NEIGHBORHOODS: Saratoga | Collier Place | Monmouth Park | Prairie Park
INTERSECTIONS: 30th and Ames | 40th and Ames | 24th Street | North Freeway | Fontenelle Boulevard
BUSINESSES: LaRue’s | Max I. Walker | North Star Theater aka Ames Theater | King Solomon’s Mines aka Shaver’s | Beacon Theater | Parkside Cafe | Ames Plaza | Battiato’s Super Market | Mergen House
PUBLIC PLACES: Ames Avenue Bridge | Saratoga School | Charles Washington Branch Library | Monmouth Park School | North High School | Fontenelle Park
OTHER: Druid Hall | St. Vincent’s Retirement Home | Ames Avenue United Methodist Church | Mergen House

MY ARTICLES ABOUT THE HISTORY OF PARKS IN NORTH OMAHA
PARKS: Adams Park | Miller Park | Fontenelle Park | Kountze Park aka Malcolm X Park | Hummel Park | Levi Carter Park | Jefferson Square Park
PRIVATE PARKS: Danish Vennelyst Park | Omaha Driving Park | Charles Street Bicycle Park | Omaha Rod and Gun Club | Carter Lake Club
AMUSEMENT PARKS: Kiddieland and the Pleasure Pier | Lakeview Amusement Park | Cortland Beach | Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition
RELATED: Kellom Pool | Omaha Municipal Beach | CCC Camp | Ames Avenue Bridge

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