An early truss bridge spans the Des Plaines River near Libertyville in this turn-of-the-century postcard.
A sulphur spring was located on the northwest side of this bridge. Libertyville entrepreneurs Frederick Grabbe and General Walter C. Newberry hoped to bottle this water and sell it. According to an essay by local historian C. E. Carroll, "The sulphur water that flowed from the bank of the Des Plaines river near the Rockland road bridge was said to have been highly esteemed by the Indians in times long passed as a cure for many ailments. An analysis proved that it did contain elements of value in the treatment of some maladies. Grabbe and Newberry bottled and shipped some of this under the name of "Vital Water", but they had to put it into brown glass bottles for the sun's rays shining through the clear glass so activated the chemicals as to generate gas which sometimes exploded. They now had visions of a great Health Resort at Libertyville, another Saratoga or White Sulphur Springs. The General brought in Army engineers to survey the situation at the Sulphur Spring but their verdict was that it would entail an expenditure of some $200,000 to develop the spring properly. The whole course of the dirty river would have to be changed, for one thing to divert it from the spring. This put a damper on the great idea and the partners abandoned it with great reluctance and contented themselves with their growing table water trade."
This may have been the second bridge built in this location, where present-day Rockland Road spans the river. According to another essay written by local historican C. E. Carroll, "There may have been only a ford at first and we do not know when the first bridge was built at this crossing, but the Rockland Road was established before 1850 and a bridge may have been put in at the same time." In 1961 the old bridge pictured here was sent to Crystal Lake; one-fourth of a 600-foot bridge of similar style which had spanned the Kaskaskia River was brought from Vandalia, Illinois and put in its place. In 1988 the Rockland Road Bridge Aesthetic Review Committee recommended that Libertyville strengthen and widen the historic bridge rather than replace it with a modern bridge. A new prestressed concrete base was constructed and the bridge was widened to two lanes, incorporating the old truss into the new design.
Libertyville History
