Rating:
3 votes

Iowa Memorial Union Footbridge

Johnson County, Iowa

Photos 

Photo taken by Frederick Wallace Kent. Photo provided by the University of Iowa Library

License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC)

View this photo on Flickr

BH Photo #250897

Map 

Street Views 

Facts 

Overview
Cantilevered deck plate girder over Iowa River on Pedestrian Pathway
Location
Iowa City, Johnson County, Iowa
Status
Open to traffic
History
Built 1934; Fountain added onto the East end in 1936 to commemorate the class of 1936.
Builders
- George Horner of Iowa City, Iowa (Designer)
- Ned L. Ashton of Iowa City, Iowa (Designer)
- Stark Construction Co. of Cedar Rapids, Iowa (Contractor)
- Works Progress Administration (Funder)
Design
Cantilevered deck plate girder
Dimensions
Length of largest span: 136.6 ft.
Total length: 410.0 ft.
Also called
IMU Footbridge
Fine Arts Footbridge
WPA Project No. 1540
Approximate latitude, longitude
+41.66362, -91.53957   (decimal degrees)
41°39'49" N, 91°32'22" W   (degrees°minutes'seconds")
Approximate UTM coordinates
15/621586/4613459 (zone/easting/northing)
Quadrangle map:
Iowa City West
Inventory numbers
WPA 1540
BH 55838 (Bridgehunter.com ID)

Categories 

Built 1935 (1,708)
Built during 1930s (10,843)
Cantilevered (304)
Deck girder (4,808)
George Horner (1)
Girder (8,627)
Haunched deck plate girder (69)
Have street view (24,062)
Iowa (5,965)
Iowa City, Iowa (46)
Iowa River (129)
 Johnson County, Iowa (169)
Ned L. Ashton (14)
Open (37,488)
Owned by college (68)
Plate girder (6,608)
Span length 125-175 feet (3,866)
Stark Construction Co. (1)
Total length 250-500 feet (4,750)
University of Iowa (4)
Works Progress Administration (243)

Update Log 

  • February 25, 2018: New Street View added by Luke
  • April 24, 2015: Updated by Luke: Added WPA project #
  • January 25, 2015: Updated by Luke: Addded alt names & builders
  • October 18, 2013: New Street View added by Luke Harden
  • August 15, 2013: New photos from John Marvig
  • June 13, 2013: Updated by Luke Harden: Marked as cantilevered
  • March 18, 2013: Added by Luke Harden

Sources 

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Comments 

Memorial Union Bridge
Posted June 13, 2013, by Douglas W. Jones (jones [at] cs [dot] uiowa [dot] edu)

This bridge is a cantelever deck plate girder bridge, with the suspended span hanging in about the middle third of the river crossing, nicely proportioned so you don't notice it except for the two expansion joints in the bridge deck and railings, and the hangers supporting the suspended span, visible on the sides of the bridge and largely covering the joints between cantelevers and the suspended span.