Nishnabotna River Bridge

Finding truss bridges in aerial images is not always that easy. If the bridge is casting a shadow, consider yourself lucky. Most abandoned truss bridges are surrounded by dense foliage, unless you are in the deserts of the Mountain West. I have found plenty of "lost" bridges that were really just hiding in the trees.

Very lightweight trusses, including bowstrings can practically disappear against brown water.

even in blurry photos, truss bridges are really easy to spot because of the shadows they cast. well, that and the bright white color of the uceb's that replace them. its still hard to tell sometimes.

Also, if you're lucky, you can also sometimes even see the new bridge being built in the historical satellite data. I've encountered that a number of times while looking back to figure out when a bridge was replaced.

Thankfully, satellite imagery is getting better and it is becoming easier to do this kind of pre-reconnaissance before spending the time and money to visit the bridges. I've made it a habit to do a thorough analysis via Google Earth before going out to figure out what bridges are still (hopefully) there and update these pages if I find a discrepancy. The historical imagery function in Google Earth is also a lifesaver, since you can pick out when the bridge might have been replaced much easier (deck style changes, trees surrounding the bridge removed when it was replaced, etc).

with poor satellite imagery quality and no street view in rural areas like this, it really is hard to determine whether or not a bridge has actually been replaced or not. Especially when some old bridges have their views blocked by trees. even with street view and good quality imagery, the frequency of updates to these views could mean that the bridge has been replaced without even knowing. ive done some "armchair" visits myself but if the nbi doesnt show a replacement and I havent actually seen it with my own eyes than i dont change the status. just adding my views to the situation here.

I'm not bickering, just thought it was worth letting people know about this for trip planning purposes. Nothing is more frustrating than making a 3000 mile bridge trip, and not visiting a bridge because you heard it was replaced, then you get home and find out it was still standing and you missed it. I don't recall what the other bridges were, it was a while ago I found them. I did correct the other ones I found, but there may be others I missed which is why I felt the need to mention this. I realize a lot of bridgehunters just do "armchair" visits to bridges using Google, but some of us to field visits to bridges and this is therefore an important issue. Personally, I'd rather air on the side of caution... I'd rather drive to a bridge and find it replaced vs skip a bridge, get home, and find out it was still standing and I blew it.

Oh, great. Now the constant bickering on the forum pages has gone intercontinental. Please take it private.

Au contraire Monseiur Holth, which examples are you referring to? I noticed during my round a while back, using the same program, that there were plenty of concrete on the roadways spanning the ravines.... ;-)

I know I have found a number of bridges in Iowa on this website that Jason for some reason listed as replaced that aren't replaced...

Satellite imagery taken in March of this year shows that this bridge still exists. Can anyone else confirm this?