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Benton Railroad Bridges

Saline County, Arkansas
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Photos 

Oblique view

This is the main span of the remaining railroad bridge [Color photos taken by Wayne Kizziar]

Map 

Facts 

Overview
One standing and one lost railroad bridges over the Saline River south of Benton, next to the Old River Bridge
Location
Saline County, Arkansas
Status
Open to traffic
Design
Remaining bridge: Single Warren through truss with two pony plate girder spans
Lost bridge: Two-span Pratt through truss
Approximate latitude, longitude
+34.54031, -92.60625   (decimal degrees)
34°32'25" N, 92°36'23" W   (degrees°minutes'seconds")
Approximate UTM coordinates
15/536130/3822137 (zone/easting/northing)
USGS topographic map
Benton
Inventory number
BH 10556 (Bridgehunter.com ID)

Categories 

Arkansas (1,219)
HAER documented (782)
Open (28,315)
Owned by railroad (4,048)
Railroad (4,075)
Saline County, Arkansas (15)
 Saline River (Arkansas) (8)
Through truss (9,210)
Truss (23,574)
Union Pacific Railroad (793)
Warren through truss (928)
Warren truss (3,961)

Update Log 

  • August 19, 2011: New photo from Lisa Hyde
  • May 17, 2008: New photo from Wayne Kizziar

Sources 

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Comments 

Benton Railroad Bridges
Posted May 11, 2012, by Cody Lewis (lewismulisha [at] yahoo [dot] com)

I visited the old river bridge today. The Bridge WAS used in the opening scenes of Sling Blade. I saw a Benton Police Officer and asked him about it, he said it IS off limits and there IS a gate that prohibits vehicles from traveling there however it's tucked away in the woods and there are rarely any police reports of trespassing there. There is NO approach to the bridge so it's not possible to get on it UNLESS you want to take the risk of being bitten by one of the 6 Water Moccasins I saw on my trip. About 100 yards upstream there is an ACTIVE train trussel however I don't think it's accessible from the Benton side, you need to go a little south to Haskell to get on, i'm not sure though.

Benton Railroad Bridges
Posted February 24, 2007, by Fred Garcia (fandsgarcia [at] gmail [dot] com)

Visited this bridge at 5:30 pm on 29 October 2006. Crossed over it to get to the other side of Old River Bridge which is 100 yds. upstream. The bridge is active as two trains crossed the bridge (one in each direction) while I was out there.

Webmaster's note: The photos that were here have been incorporated into the main site.