High Trestle Trail Bridge (2010)

The bridge was abandoned by the Milwaukee Road around 1980 when they were going into bankruptcy and abandoned their mainline across Iowa. However, it was used for many years by the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad and then sparingly by the Union Pacific after they took over the CNW. There were trains crossing here up through 2002, but they were very rare and only went to Woodward.

Hey Luke, check out the goings on next week up in Winneshiek with The Upper Bluffton Bridge. Would love to see you there as we try to save another historic bridge from becoming yard art.

I love the Mississippi and spend as much time over there as possible, road trip in the fall for sure.

Luke,

I saw that bridge on the news. Wild looking for a new thing. Too bad people gotta muck that up.

On another note, want to go bridge spotting. I see you are here in Iowa. Are you an Engineer? June 14 is dismantle day in Winneshiek County, but there are some bridges closer to home that we are looking at too.

Julie

Now reopened as the High Trestle Trail Bridge

The bridge wasn't so much as "demolished" as it was re-purposed- UP used the steel spans on the new Kate Shelley bridge further upriver.

Not as much as that pic of the tunnel that's above your post in the Forum.

I thought they represented a designer on some kind of hallucinogen.

Did anyone else scratch their head while looking at the, um, decor of the bridge on the new Ankeny to Woodward Trail bridge?

I found the website Jason referred to. Apparenly, the area was once noted for coal mining. Monoliths at the bridge portals will depict seams of coal embedded in limestone. The cribbing represents the supports built into mine shafts.

On a personal note, I think it's terrific that the old piers are being utilized. As for the cribbing? I can do without it, thanks.

By the way, the trail has been renamed the "High Trestle Trail." After all, the piers stand about 130 feet above the Des Moines River Valley.

You can view the site here: http://a2wtrail.org/

Info on the bridge is here: http://a2wtrail.org/dmrb.html

Construction has already begun and there is a gallery of work-in-progress photos on the site.

Interesting story about this bridge. There is a trail group that rail-banked this line from Des Moines to Woodward, and their deal with the UP included this bridge. Part of the deck of this bridge (dual track) was taken a re-used as part of the new Kate Shelly Bridge near Boone. There is a plan for the supports to be re-used for the Woodward to Ackney Trail as the main 9river bridge.

The pictures attached are from the bike trails site.

That bridge was really high in the air, it appears. In that regard, it kind of reminds me of the original railroad bridge in St. Charles, Missouri that opened in 1871 (and I believe was demolished in the 1930's) as the second bridge over the Missouri River.