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Old IA14 Brush Creek Bridge
Photos
Old 14 5
Photo taken by Jason Smith in August 2013
Enlarge
BH Photo #268862
Description
The northernmost bridge is all that remains of the Old Highway 14 crossing, which spanned Brush Creek, a tributary of the Des Moines River. While it is unknown when the first crossing was built, two variants are clear: 1. The concrete slab bridges were built in the 1940s shortly before the Red Rock Lake Project was introduced in the 1950s. And 2. The construction of the new Highway 14 Bridge (a.k.a. One Mile Bridge) in 1965 was the last nail in the coffin of the region, featuring several small villages and bridges which were inundated with the construction of the Red Rock Dam and the creation of Red Rock Lake in 1969. This bridge is one of the remains of the region that serves as a reminder of what it had looked like before the Red Rock Lake Project.
Facts
- Overview
- Slab bridge over Red Rock Lake (formerly Des Moines River and other tributaries on IA Hwy. 14 until 1965; Now pedestrian path
- Location
- Marion County, Iowa
- Status
- All but the northernmost bridge and highway are inundated
- History
- Built ca. 1940
- Design
- Slab
- Approximate latitude, longitude
- +41.43298, -93.10051 (decimal degrees)
41°25'59" N, 93°06'02" W (degrees°minutes'seconds")
- Approximate UTM coordinates
- 15/491602/4586828 (zone/easting/northing)
- Quadrangle map:
- Otley
- Inventory number
- BH 58491 (Bridgehunter.com ID)
Update Log
- April 4, 2016: New Street View added by Luke
- April 3, 2016: Updated by Luke: Corrected stream crossed
- October 21, 2013: Updated by Jason Smith: Added category "Red Rock Lake Project (Iowa)"
Old 14 apparently came up out of the valley on the south end at 41.402318,-93.10378 .
This bridge was apparently near the lost community of Cordova.
Cordova's coordinates were 41.426879 -93.099360
Here's a .pdf of the lost towns (and ferries) of the Red Rock Reservoir.
http://www.co.marion.ia.us/maps/historical/LostTownsOfLakeRe...
Apparently, there is a book called "The best of Grace Karr's Cordova News". Perhaps Grace wrote about old hwy 14 in her columns?
These places that get inundated are fascinating. I hiked the valley where Brushy Creek Park is in Webster County just before they closed the dam gate and submerged everything. I remember a couple of small bridges & old cars were down there. Now they're under 40 ft of water.
later,
Don