Rating:
2 votes

Cedar River Trail - Prairie Creek Bridge

Linn County, Iowa

Photos 

As seen from C Street - looking east

Good use of an abandoned rail bridge for a very popular trail.

Photo taken by Quinn Phelan in September 2010

Enlarge

BH Photo #243741

Map 

Street View 

Facts 

Overview
Deck plate girder bridge over Prairie Creek on Trail
Location
Cedar Rapids, Linn County, Iowa
Status
Open to pedestrians only
History
Built 1899
Builders
- Cedar Valley Quarry of Cedar Valley, Iowa (Substructure Quarrier)
- Elmer J.C. Bealer of Cedar Valley, Iowa (Substructure)
Railroads
- Burlington, Cedar Rapids & Northern Railway (BCRN)
- Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad (CRIP (1866-1920); RI (1920-1975) ROCK (1975-1980))
Design
Deck plate girder
Dimensions
Length of largest span: 100.0 ft.
Total length: 180.0 ft.
Also called
BCR&N Prairie Creek Bridge
Approximate latitude, longitude
+41.94977, -91.63939   (decimal degrees)
41°56'59" N, 91°38'22" W   (degrees°minutes'seconds")
Approximate UTM coordinates
15/612772/4645094 (zone/easting/northing)
Quadrangle map:
Cedar Rapids South
Inventory number
BH 54655 (Bridgehunter.com ID)

Categories 

19th Century (9,081)
Built 1899 (435)
Built during 1890s (3,280)
Burlington, Cedar Rapids & Northern Railway (177)
Cedar Rapids, Iowa (99)
Cedar River Trail (11)
Cedar Valley Quarry (22)
Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad (1,165)
Deck girder (6,399)
Elmer J.C. Bealer (24)
Girder (11,348)
 Have street view (29,908)
Iowa (6,818)
Linn County, Iowa (252)
Open to pedestrians (4,632)
Owned by city (6,160)
Plate girder (8,876)
Rail-to-trail (1,661)
Railroad (16,666)
Span length 100-125 feet (4,620)
Total length 175-250 feet (4,597)

Update Log 

  • December 28, 2021: New photo from Luke
  • December 27, 2021: Updated by Luke: Added substructure contractor+quarrier
  • March 7, 2017: New photos from John Marvig
  • April 24, 2014: Updated by Dylan VanAntwerp: Removed category "Iowa Northern Railroad"
  • November 19, 2013: New Street View added by Luke Harden
  • October 1, 2013: Photo imported by Dave King
  • September 19, 2013: New photos from Dave King
  • August 14, 2013: New photos from John Marvig
  • August 13, 2013: Updated by John Marvig: Added probable build date and dimensions
  • May 11, 2013: New photo from Dave King
  • November 28, 2012: New photo from Quinn Phelan
  • November 28, 2012: Added by Luke Harden

Sources 

  • Luke
  • Quinn Phelan - qphelan [at] earthlink [dot] net
  • Dave King - DKinghawkfan [at] hotmail [dot] com
  • John Marvig - marvigj27 [at] gmail [dot] com
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Comments 

Cedar River Trail - Prairie Creek Bridge
Posted April 24, 2014, by Dylan VanAntwerp (dylan_vanantwerp [at] live [dot] com)

Iowa Northern never operated south of Cedar Rapids. The company did consider buying the rest of the former Rock Island from Cedar Rapids to Burlington, but there were two bridges out of service on the south end of the line, and IANR lacked the funds to get the line back in operation. Buying the section from Cedar Rapids to West Liberty would only have allowed interchange with the Iowa Railroad, now Iowa Interstate, which made little sense at the time.