Constructed in 1926 and utilized until 1955, the Great Western Sugar Effluent Flume and Bridge are significant for their association with the industrial development, operation, and demise of the beet sugar factory in Fort Collins during the first half of the twentieth century. The flume drew massive amounts of water from the Cache la Poudre River and deposited huge volumes of effluent onto nearby lands and back into the river. Although most of the factory complex was demolished during the 1960s, the Effluent Flume and Bridge remain over the river.