McGilvray Road, also known as the Seven Bridges Road, is named for Alexander McGilvray who settled in northwestern La Crosse County in 1853 and established a ferry service in the area in 1854. Due to the frequency of log jams and their interference with the ferry service, wooden bridges were constructed in 1892.
Between 1905 and 1908, the La Crosse Bridge and Steel Company was hired to build five bowstring arch and truss bridges to replace the wooden bridges which had been damaged by flooding. These new bridges utilized the patented design of La Crosse resident Charles Horton. Instead of using bolts and rivets, believing these to cause undue stress on the structure, Horton used hook-clips, sleeves, hangers, and socket-supporters as fastening devices on the bridges.
These bridges were damaged in the 1970s by more flooding. In 1975, ownership of the bridges was transferred from the Town of Holland to the Wisconsin DNR. The six remaining bridges were all of the bowstring variety except for one kingpost. In 1985 an engineering firm hired by the DNR declared the six bridges unsafe even for pedestrian traffic and in 1989 the remaining bridges were threatened with demolition.
The Preservation Alliance of La Crosse began an effort to stop the destruction of the bridges. The Preservation Alliance received help from individuals such as State Representative Virgil Roberts and State Senator Brian Rude and organizations such as the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. Originally a sub-committee of the Preservation Alliance of La Crosse, the Friends of McGilvray Road worked with the Department of Natural Resources to become a DNR “Friends” organization. In 1989, the Friends of McGilvray Road filed its articles of incorporation and established its bylaws, becoming independent of the Preservation Alliance of La Crosse.
In conjunction with the Department of Natural Resources, the Friends of McGilvray Road group is responsible for restoring, preserving, and maintaining McGilvray Road and its bridges. The Friends group raised funds through the sale of limited edition art prints featuring scenes along McGilvray road. The group received the 1990 Hometown Pride Award (sponsored by Midwest Living Magazine), the 1997 Preservation Alliance of La Crosse Heritage Award, a 1998 Historic Preservation Award by the Wisconsin Trust for Historic Preservation, and a grant from the Dayton-Hudson Corporation.
The McGilvray Road bridges officially reopened on September 13, 1997. The bridges are a designated La Crosse County Historic Site and are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The road's bridges comprise five of the seven extant bowstring arch truss bridges in Wisconsin and are believed to be the only existing bridges built using Horton's patented design.
