This route was still the Minneapolis & St. Louis railroad on the 1928 RR Atlas, thus the label rrMisc instead of rrCaNW.
C&NW bought the M&StL in 1960. Bridge built 1909; Abandoned 1971; Partially lost to fire in 1981. "The vertical lift section was locked in the up /open position until the lift portion was accidentally destroyed by fireworks and the ensuing fire on June 29, 1981. The 220 ft lift section fell into the river blocking river traffic on the main channel of the Mississippi River for more than a week until it was removed by the US Army Corps of Engineers." [Bridge Hunter] John's page provides more details of the fire and describes the decline of the town.
Robert Daly posted two photos with the comment: "Remains of the Minneapolis & St Louis bridge over the Mississippi, Keithsburg, April 13 2013."
Bridge Hunter Previous [This was the original Iowa Central Bridge that was built in 1886. We cans still see most of the stone piers of this bridge south of the 1909 bridge in a satellite image.]
The image below is interesting for several reasons. Notice how low the river level is. In most of the photos of this bridge, the shore-side tower is in the water. No wonder the steamboat is hugging the far side of the opening, the draft must be shallow. The old bridge was removed in 1910, and this photo must have been taken while they were planning the removal. Note the men standing to the right of the stone pier on the right. A swing span had been added to the old bridge. The problem is, this image shows the old bridge behind the new one. But that would put it north of the new bridge. But the satellite image shows the old piers were south of the new bridge. Furthermore, there does not appear to be enough room between the two bridges for a swing span to open. But the swing span looks symmetrical, which rules out using a short span on the new-bridge side with a heavy counterweight. I wonder if the smokestacks can be hinged at the white lines. If the river level was as high as it is in the other photos we have of the bridge, then those stacks would have a tough time clearing the lift span. That is, the up position is not very far up.
Francis Otterbein posted Swing Bridge Cleveland circa 1910. Superior Avenue viaduct over the Cuyahoga River.
Mike Brady commented on Francis' posting Started construction 1875, opened 1878 for traffic and removed in 1923 due to a new bridge. I love this photo of it being built.
Gavin EspositoGavin and 279 others joined RAILROAD BRIDGES, TRESTLES, TUNNELS AND CUTS within the last two weeks. Give them a warm welcome into your community!Surprisingly enough, this bridge was the site of the worse traction railroad accident in American history. On November 16th, 1895, car #642 driven by motorman Augustus Rogers plunged into the Cuyahoga River below when the draw was mistakenly left open. Safety mechanisms were in place to prevent such accidents, a derailer switch was in place on both sides of the draw spaced 100 feet apart, the motorman would have to get out, throw the switch, and climb back on to proceed. Beyond this was a pair of gates that he also had to open, but were driven electronically once the car had passed. The power source failed that evening, resulting in the gates never closing. As car #642 approaches the draw with 25 passengers aboard, motorman Rogers motioned for conductor Edward Hoffman to get off and throw the switch; he obliged and did so. Picking Hoffmann back up the car rolled towards—and then through the gates. Falling some 101 feet into the Cuyahoga River below, it struck an abutment of the bridge and bounced into the Cuyahoga River—killing 17 of the 25 passengers
1932 Bridge Hunter has a timeline of the saving of this bridge. Of note, the MO AG sued the MO DNR director to not give the bridge back to UP. UP wanted to move some of the spans to another project.
Wayne Lammers posted four photos with the comment:
Hi. I'm a new member to this FB page. These are some of my Boonville, MO Katy (MKT) railroad bridge collection. This bridge was built and finished in1873. It was changed over the years and was given to the city of Boonville. We are presently converting it to be a large part of the Missouri Katy Trail State Park. If there is interest, I will post more images of our beautiful 408 foot lift span bridge. The last photo is what it looks like now.
1 Construction of the MKT railroad bridge in 1872.
2 This is the south Boonville entrance to the finished, MK&T RR Bridge. Just look how they built bridges back some 145 years ago!!!
3 This is the reconstruction of the bridge in 1886.
4 From the center of the Missouri River at Boonville, MO
(new window) Shot in 1986. They were still running with cabooses!
(new window) I shoved the position indicator quite frequently.
Katy Bridge Boonville posted An awesome image of the bridge during the flood of 1903 Charles WellsSure looks like "Everything" is under water over at Franklin! Think this was far more a common occurrence than one might imagine, especially during spring and late fall! Too bad the Katy did not build farther up on higher ground!
The US Army Core of Engineers supports a 9-foot channel on the river to Souix City, IA. [USACE] A 2-million pound, 408' long lift span is rather impressive. If it is locked, it would have to be high enough to clear pushboats (towboats). Fortunately, that is not near as high as the old steamboats needed. I have written about preserved lift bridges that have added ramps up to the locked lift span. Of course, I now can't remember where I wrote that. And Google's Blogspot broke the author's search function on April 3, 2018, so I'm not even going to try to find the preserved lift trail.
Looking at some of the elevation shots, this bridge was built for 9-foot channel barge traffic, not steamboats, because the towers are so short. It looks like even fully raised, ramps on the bridge would have to go up just 20 to 30 feet high. It is interesting that I can't find any info on the plans for the lift span. Are they going to hire a state park ranger to operate it or are they going to lock it in the up position and build ramps? The state park system staffing a lift bridge would be a notable preservation, and tourist attraction, option. But if Missouri politicians are as incompetent as Illinois politicians, the state park system won't be funded to do anything noteworthy. (For example, the Illinois state park closed their Tunnel Hill State Trail facility.)
