This week marked the end of any smooching on the “Kissing Bridge.”

Baldwin City crews kissed the longtime bridge off, severing the remaining suspension cable and cutting the wooden structure into pieces. The bridge – and the one it replaced – had been fixtures in northwest Baldwin City for decades. Recent damage to it forced the city to tear it down because of liability concerns, said City Administrator Jeff Dingman.

Legend has it that Baker University students used the bridge as a place to go kiss, safely away from the campus. That led to something else.

“A lot of marriage proposals were made on that bridge,” said Becky McMillen, who lives near the bridge on 11th Street. “It was a tradition.

“It’s just one of those things that make Baldwin special,” she said. “It’s too bad it couldn’t be fixed.”

The reason for that? Money. The kiss of death, so to speak.

“It was too dangerous to allow it to stay,” said Dingman. “We don’t have any immediate plans for replacing it. It is just too costly to put an appropriate bridge of that size in there. We looked last year at replacement bridge options and it’s deep into the five-digit numbers.

“We may look at including it if we ever apply for a grant to improve that area,” he said. “I realize that some folks have sentimental value attached to it, but we can’t replace it right now with the existing priorities that need addressed.”

McMillen said she had heard that it would cost $100,000 to replace the bridge. Dingman said it wasn’t that much, but close to it. Currently, the city is restoring the “Women’s Bridge” on High Street with the help of the Kansas Department of Transportation. Last year, the city – with a great deal of help from Douglas County – replaced the High Street bridge between Fifth and Fourth streets.

The Kissing Bridge had fallen into disrepair during the years. It had been there for more than 30 years after replacing another wooden bridge known as the “Crooked Bridge,” which had crossed the creek for 50 years, according to McMillen.

In fact, it was that Crooked Bridge that helped spawn the history that would become the Kissing Bridge. It was used for the same purpose and was the site of many marriage proposals. Longtime local couple Joe and Betty Simunac are a big part of that history. It was a kiss there that eventually led to Joe’s eventual proposal.

“No, that was a prelude to the proposal,” Simunac said of the kiss that led to a yes. “Why of course, it must have been. It’s just a fond memory of what was to become 65 years of wedded bliss.”

The kiss, the proposal and the longstanding marriage that resulted is part of the lore that led to the “new” bridge being referred to as the Kissing Bridge.

“That’s right,” he said. “If it hadn’t been there, maybe we wouldn’t have gotten married. It was there a long time before we were.”

Although he’s sad to see the Kissing Bridge go, he realizes it’s a sign of the times and, well, aging.

“I suppose everything has its day, and that bridge has been around a long time,” said Simunac. “It’s just one of those relics in Baldwin that you hate to see go.”