Bellefountain Bridge
Description
Like many bridges across major rivers, the Bellefountain Bridge was preceded for years by a ferry operation. Located at the small town of Bellefountain along the Des Moines River in western Mahaska County, this multiple span truss was erected here in 1898. That year, after granting licenses for the ferry for decades, the Mahaska County Board of Supervisors finally agreed to build a permanent bridge at this point. In May the county solicited competitive bides for the bridge's fabrication ad erection. Attracted by the sizable profits for such a large scale project, virtually all of the major bridge firms in the region submitted bids in June. Low bidder at $9,750, Clinton Bridge and Iron Works won the contract. The Clinton, Iowa, firm built the four pinned Pratt trusses on large-diameter steel cylinder piers that year. The Bellefountain Bridge carried mainline traffic without alteration for three decades until its replacement in 1930 with another truss a half-mile upstream. The 1898 bridge continued to serve local traffic, but eventually, without maintenance, it was closed. Today most of the timber floor system has rotted away, and the bridge has been allowed to molder in place by the county. The Bellefountain Bridge is distinguished among the remaining Pratt through trusses by relatively early construction date and multiplicity of relatively long spans [adapted from Fraser 1992].Facts
- Overview
- Through truss bridge over Des Moines River
- Location
- Mahaska County, Iowa, and Marion County, Iowa
- Status
- Closed to all traffic
- Future prospects
- Mahaska County is interested in making this a trail bridge.
- History
- Built 1898
- Builder
- - Clinton Bridge Co.
- Design
- Pinned, Pratt through truss
- Dimensions
-
Length of largest span: 145.0 ft.
Total length: 595.0 ft.
Deck width: 16.1 ft.
Vertical clearance above deck: 13.1 ft.
- Recognition
- Posted to the National Register of Historic Places on May 15, 1998
- Approximate latitude, longitude
- +41.28055, -92.86135 (decimal degrees)
41°16'50" N, 92°51'41" W (degrees°minutes'seconds") - Approximate UTM coordinates
- 15/511611/4569910 (zone/easting/northing)
- Land survey
- T. 75 N., R. 17 W., Sec. 19
- USGS topographic map
- Leighton
- Inventory numbers
- IA 34955 (Iowa bridge number)
NRHP 98000506 (National Register of Historic Places reference number)
BH 13982 (Bridgehunter.com ID) - Inspection (as of 01/2007)
- Appraisal: Structurally deficient
Sufficiency rating: 17.5 (out of 100) - Average daily traffic (as of 2002)
- 25
Update Log
- December 21, 2012: Photo imported by Luke Harden
- April 5, 2012: Updated by Craig Philpott: corrected spelling
- April 5, 2012: New photos from Jason Smith
- April 3, 2012: New photos from Jason Smith
- August 11, 2011: Updated by Luke Harden: Corrected name and added description
- April 27, 2011: Updated by Tony Dillon: Added common name
Sources
- Tony Dillon - spansaver [at] hotmail [dot] com
- Luke Harden - lukemh9 [at] gmail [dot] com
- Jason Smith - JDSmith77 [at] gmx [dot] net
- Craig Philpott - cphilpott [at] puc [dot] edu
- Historicbridges.org - by Nathan Holth
Comments
Thanks guys! I'm currently using an Apple computer (iMac) so I'm not sure if it makes a difference or not. I will try and experiment and see if I have some luck. If not, I'll let you know. Thanks! :-)
Ahh, but we do have a built-in photo rotation tool. Just click the yellow "Edit this photo" button next to a particular photo, and then use the "Rotate left" or "Rotate right" buttons as needed.
Didn't mean to start a maelstrom JS... I just figured you had forgotten to rotate them.
I've certainly done it before. :)
Windows Paint has the ability to rotate images as well.
Jason,
What type of computer do you have? Unless its really ancient, ability to rotate photos should be built-in to the operating system. If you have XP, use Windows Picture and Fax Viewer (the default program to open photos) and in newer versions of Windows its called Windows Photo Viewer. Also, numerous free programs are available on the Internet to rotate and edit images.
Problem is there was no function on the website nor my computer where I could put the pics in an upright position. Perhaps if James could take care of that that would be great....
PS, the same applies to the Christian Co. MO bridges I posted yesterday.
Those sideways pics are hurtin' my neck JS ;p
For some reason photos didn't make it past the editing stage. Here they are.
This bridge is known as the Bellefountain Bridge. More information can be found at the Iowa DOT website under "Historical Bridges." The 1914 photo is from the Iowa DOT website, the 2010 photo is by me.
This page's URL is http://bridgehunter.com/ia/mahaska/34955/