"Dust everywhere. Was one of the chief irritants in Green Bay - particularly downtown, for while the main downtown streets were paved, so much dust was carried in from the outlying streets, which were nearly all unpaved, that a constant street- sprinkling service had to be maintained by means of horse - drawn sprinkler wagons. but the question arose - should the street area occupied by the street railway company's tracks be sprinkled at City expense? Well, the question was resolved in an unexpected manner; the street rail car co. (then the Green Bay Traction Co.) proposed to put in a street-sprinkler and sprinkle not only its own track area, but the rest of the streets as well, and of course the city would pay the street railway for sprinkling the city's portions of the streets. the plan worked out seemingly well - until on October 20th, 1913 while crossing Main Street bridge, the weakened timbers of the old wooden structure collapsed and the sprinkler car dropped into the Fox River! The sprinkler crew - George Timmers and Nick Listel saved themselves by clinging to nearby piling. Fortunately there were no pedestrians or other vehicles near enough to become involved in the collapse. The sprinkler car was fished from the Fox River piece-meal and reassembled, but was never used again in Green Bay streets."

Photo #6209.26