Documentary film on Black Hawk Bridge to be shown during Fish Days celebration, Saturday, August 10

A documentary on the history of Lansing’s Black Hawk Bridge and the process of replacing it will be shown at the Kee High School gymnasium in Lansing at 4 p.m. Saturday, August 10, coinciding with this year’s Lansing Fish Days celebration, August 9-11.

The film, “Bridging Generations: The Story of the Black Hawk Bridge,” was commissioned by the Iowa Department of Transportation (IDOT) as part of its responsibility to mitigate the loss of the bridge. The new bridge now under construction will provide a physical transport over the Mississippi River, but the documentary is a way to preserve some of the cultural heritage of the Black Hawk Bridge for the community that has loved it for generations.
IDOT hired Loras College creative media professor Craig Schaefer and his team to create the documentary. They told the story of the bridge and the people it has served through historical research done by Ray Werner of Tallgrass Archeology of Iowa City and through interviews with area residents, bridge workers and IDOT planners.

Werner’s research gave the filmmakers the facts and figures of the bridge - dates, names of key people, how it was built, the story behind why it was closed for years. “Then, we’ve been in Lansing for the past year interviewing all kinds of folks,” Schaefer said. “We talked to people involved with the mitigation process - the state-level stuff - and others who have lived there their whole life.”

“As filmmakers, we’re really interested in how anything connects to people’s lives. That is what matters to us… There are just so many iconic things about that bridge, from how it was engineered and constructed to the sound of that bridge. They’ll never make another bridge like this ever again,” he said.

Schaefer has made many documentary films, usually biographical in nature. This is the first film he and his team have made about a structure. “Documentaries take time and effort and they can be tedious to make but they’re really joyful productions in the end,” Schaefer said, “I can’t tell you how many wonderful people we have met and worked with in Lansing. That’s the best part - the relationships. Everyone was just tremendously helpful and welcoming.”

After its premiere at Kee High, IDOT will post the documentary on YouTube, according to Brennan Dolan, cultural resources team lead at IDOT.