Rating:
2 votes

The Steel Bridge

Davis County, Iowa

Photos 

Soap Creek Bridge

Photo taken by Chris Gonnerman in November 2012

License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike (CC BY-SA)

Enlarge

BH Photo #243562

Map 

Facts 

Overview
Through truss bridge over Soap Creek on Hill Boulevard
Location
Davis County, Iowa
Status
Open to traffic
History
Built 1905
Design
6 panel pin-connected Pratt through truss with A-frame portal bracing
Dimensions
Length of largest span: 137.1 ft.
Total length: 231.0 ft.
Deck width: 18.0 ft.
Vertical clearance above deck: 13.0 ft.
Also called
Soap Creek Bridge
Approximate latitude, longitude
+40.85576, -92.51137   (decimal degrees)
40°51'21" N, 92°30'41" W   (degrees°minutes'seconds")
Approximate UTM coordinates
15/541184/4522860 (zone/easting/northing)
Quadrangle map:
Paris
Land survey
T. 70 N., R. 14 W., Sec. 19
Average daily traffic (as of 2014)
170
Inventory numbers
IA 135670 (Iowa bridge number)
BH 13326 (Bridgehunter.com ID)
Inspection report (as of June 2016)
Overall condition: Fair
Superstructure condition rating: Satisfactory (6 out of 9)
Substructure condition rating: Fair (5 out of 9)
Deck condition rating: Fair (5 out of 9)
Sufficiency rating: 42.6 (out of 100)
View more at BridgeReports.com

Categories 

6-panel truss (569)
A-frame portal (409)
Built 1905 (755)
Built during 1900s (6,717)
Concrete deck (77)
Davis County, Iowa (76)
Functionally obsolete (7,440)
Historic Bridge Weekend 2013 (145)
Iowa (6,151)
 Open (38,377)
Owned by county (19,766)
Pin-connected (3,660)
Pratt through truss (4,889)
Pratt truss (8,511)
Span length 125-175 feet (3,961)
Through truss (13,860)
Total length 175-250 feet (4,019)
Truss (30,966)

Update Log 

  • February 21, 2014: New photo from Jack Schmidt
  • March 14, 2013: Updated by Dylan VanAntwerp: Edited name
  • March 6, 2013: New photos from Dylan VanAntwerp
  • November 23, 2012: Updated by Chris Gonnerman: Added detail to bridge description.

Sources 

  • Chris Gonnerman
  • Dylan VanAntwerp - dylan_vanantwerp [at] live [dot] com
  • Jack Schmidt - jjturtle [at] earthlink [dot] net
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Comments 

The Steel Bridge
Posted March 18, 2013, by Anonymous

You've reminded me of that scene from The 'Burbs.

"I want to kill everyone ... Satan is good ... Satan is our pal."

But that is a possibility. If that red stain on the bridge portal is indeed blood as well as what's seen underside.

The Steel Bridge
Posted March 18, 2013, by Robert Elder (robertelder1 [at] gmail [dot] com)

Another possibility is that it may have died on a local farm from natural causes. Then, some teenagers may have thought it would be fun to place the carcass on the bridge.

A more sinister thought is there may have been a satanic or other offbeat religious ceremony here.

The Steel Bridge
Posted March 17, 2013, by Don Morrison

Perhaps it was a U of Iowa fan and threw itself off the bridge in a fit of March madness. 8^P

Go Cyclones!

The Steel Bridge
Posted March 16, 2013, by Tony Dillon (spansaver [at] hotmail [dot] com)

I figured it probably ended up there during a flood...hmmmm

The Steel Bridge
Posted March 16, 2013, by Anonymous

Poor creature probably fell off of a passing truck. Heck of a way to die.

The Steel Bridge
Posted March 14, 2013, by Tony Dillon (spansaver [at] hotmail [dot] com)

Looks like a converted Rail bridge based on the portal design...however, the dimensions would say otherwise.

The dead sheep hanging from the lower chord eyebars is rather interesting!

The Steel Bridge
Posted March 14, 2013, by Dylan VanAntwerp (dylan_vanantwerp [at] live [dot] com)

It might sound kind of silly, but I grew up in the area and the steel bridge is all I've ever heard it called.