Common Council resolutions and reports began to be organized by a numbering system in Dec. 1932. Before that time the resolutions were kept folded up in chronological order, roughly by subject or Council committee (such as Parks, Judiciary, Fire, Police, etc.). This set of pre-1932 resolutions represents those labelled as Bridges, and date from 1857-1932.

The original order of these reports was not maintained. In arranging this series, the resolutions were grouped together by the location of the bridges; therein, chronologically. Railroad bridges are NOT included in this series. Railroads built and maintained their own bridges. This series represents bridges constructed under the authority of the city of La Crosse. In a few cases, private citizens representing certain industries asked the Common Council for permission to construct their own bridges to facilitate ease in transportation.

Bridges best represented in this series are the main and west channel bridges across the Mississippi River, and the road from the west end of the wagon bridge to La Crescent, MN, 1888-1932. What is unusual here is the inclusion of deeds for right-of-way and other agreements made with property owners in 1888-1891 in order to build the series of bridges and improve the roadway to La Crescent. Resolutions regarding the lifting of the toll can be found in the general resolutions subseries. Other bridge areas that have some substance in this series are La Crosse River (n.d.; 1859-1922), Isle la Plume (1857-1931), Pettibone Park (1880-1917), Black River (1891-1926), and the Causeway [Plank Road], (1867-1919).