Hale Bridge

Map 

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Facts 

Overview

Lost Bowstring pony truss bridge over Wapsipinicon River on 100th Avenue in Hale Township

Location

Hale Township, Jones County, Iowa

Status

Replaced by new bridge

History

Built 1877-1879; Replaced 2003; Relocated 2006

Builder

- King Bridge Co. of Cleveland, Ohio

Design

The three-span Hale Bridge is a striking, and extremely rare, example of what was once a common bridge form: the bowstring arch-truss. In the 1860s and 1870s bowstring arch-trusses were used extensively because of their great structural efficiency and relatively low construction costs. The Hale Bridge is an excellent example of the work of the King Iron Bridge and Manufacturing Company, a major bridge fabricator who erected a great number of this type of bridge throughout the nation, including in Iowa.

Historian: Geoffrey H. Goldberg, Engineer, August 1995

"This [HAER] document was prepared as part of the Iowa Historic Bridges Recording Project performed durng the Summer of 1995 by the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER). The project was sponsored by the Iowa Department of Transportation (IDOT). Preliminary research on this bridge was performed by Clayton B. Fraser of Fraserdesign, Loveland, CO."
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Dimensions

Length of largest span: 100 ft.
Total length: 263 ft.

Recognition

Posted to the National Register of Historic Places on May 15, 1998

Also called

Wapsipinicon River Bridge

Approximate latitude, longitude

+42.00833, -91.07500   (decimal degrees)
42°00'30" N, 91°04'30" W   (degrees°minutes'seconds")

Approximate UTM coordinates

15/659406/4652493 (zone/easting/northing)

USGS topographic map

Wyoming West

Inventory numbers

NRHP 98000539 (National Register of Historic Places reference number)
BH 37394 (Bridgehunter.com ID)

Categories 

Update Log 

• September 9, 2008: Added by J.R. Manning

Sources 

• J.R. Manning - thekitchenguy [at] sbcglobal [dot] net
• HAER IA-59 - Hale Bridge
• State Historical Society of Iowa - Documentation of the relocation of the Hale Bridge to Wapsipinicon State Park in Anamosa.

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