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Rock Rapids Railroad Bridge

Lyon County, Iowa
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Photos 

Side view

Photo taken by Jason Smith

Map 

Facts 

Overview
Pratt through truss bridge over Rock River on the discontinued Illinois Central Railroad at Rock Rapids
Location
Rock Rapids, Lyon County, Iowa
Status
Privately used by utility personnel.
History
Built 1888 by the Union Bridge Co.; Abandoned in the 1980s
Builder
- Union Bridge Co.
Design
Pinned, 8-panel Pratt through truss
Dimensions
Length of largest span: 150.0 ft.
Approximate latitude, longitude
+43.42299, -96.16462   (decimal degrees)
43°25'23" N, 96°09'53" W   (degrees°minutes'seconds")
Approximate UTM coordinates
14/729521/4811694 (zone/easting/northing)
USGS topographic map
Rock Rapids
Inventory number
BH 13935 (Bridgehunter.com ID)

Categories 

19th Century (3,822)
8-panel truss (238)
Built 1888 (103)
Built during 1880s (1,045)
Illinois Central Railroad (212)
Iowa (3,507)
Lyon County, Iowa (39)
Open (28,314)
Owned privately (543)
 Pin-connected (1,521)
Pratt through truss (3,166)
Pratt truss (5,660)
Rock Rapids, Iowa (9)
Rock River (Minnesota-Iowa) (21)
Span length 125-175 feet (2,955)
Through truss (9,210)
Truss (23,574)
Union Bridge Co. (32)

Update Log 

  • December 14, 2012: Updated by John Marvig: Corrected build date
  • October 11, 2012: Updated by Luke Harden: Added category "Rock River (Iowa)"
  • October 11, 2012: Updated by Jason Smith: Added category "Rock River"
  • June 3, 2012: Updated by Tony Dillon: Changed description from riveted to pinned, fixed other typos
  • December 3, 2011: Updated by Frank Hicks: Added GPS coordinates; has this bridge been converted to road use?
  • September 29, 2005: Posted photos from Jason Smith

Sources 

  • Jason Smith - JDSmith77 [at] gmx [dot] net
  • Frank Hicks
  • Tony Dillon - spansaver [at] hotmail [dot] com
  • John Marvig - johnmarvig [at] chaska [dot] net
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Comments 

Rock Rapids Railroad Bridge
Posted June 2, 2012, by Scott Van Aartsen (radioboy75 [at] hotmail [dot] com)

The old Illinois Central bridge over the Rock River at Rock Rapids has been converted to "road" use, but it is a private driveway bridge. Not only do utilities utilize this bridge, but so do utility personnel. The only other usable vehicle bridge is the Highway 9 bridge. This bridge is only supposed to be used by Municipal Utility Personnel. The west side is in a residential area of town, but on the east side is the city's sewer plant. Utility personnel use it as a private "shortcut" to the sewer plant. They usually take it pretty slow on the old bridge.