Harvey Railroad Bridge
Description
After the Des Moines Valley Railroad was completed in northeastern Marion County in 1866, the citizens of Knoxville began agitating for a railroad line that would link the southern and central parts of the county with a national railroad. A line named the Albia, Knoxville and Des Moines (AK&D) Railroad was planned, and in 1870 Liberty, Indiana, Knoxville and Pleasant Grove Townships approved a special tax to help defray the construction costs for the proposed rail line. But the railroad fell short of completion, and after a period of litigation, the subscriptions and subsidies were acquired by the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy (CB&Q) Railroad in 1875. With far better financing than the AK&D, the CB&Q was able to complete the line to Knoxville, with the first train rolling into town in December 1875. The following year the town of Harvey was platted near where the CB&Q line crossed the Des Moines River. The railroad first employed ferries or a temporary bridge over the river at this point. In 1878, however, it contracted with the American Bridge Company of Chicago to fabricate a wrought iron truss as a permanent bridge for this crossing. The structure consisted of four pinned Pratt through trusses, supported by stone abutments and piers. It is not known whether American Bridge or the railroad itself erected the trusses, but the Harvey Railroad Bridge was completed by the time the line was completed through the county to Des Moines in 1879. It carried railroad traffic until 1938, when the county purchased the bridge and adjoining right-of-way and converted it into a county road. Although the river itself has been re-routed to the north, leaving the bridge with nothing to cross, the Harvey Railroad Bridge continues to function in place in unaltered condition. It is today a well-preserved example of early railroad truss construction in Iowa [adapted from Fraser 1992].Facts
- Overview
- Four-span wrought-iron through truss bridge over the old channel of the Des Moines River on Harvey Island Road
- Location
- Marion County, Iowa
- Status
- Open to one-lane traffic on a minimum-maintenance road
- History
- Built 1878 by the American Bridge Co. for the CB&Q Railroad; converted for vehicular use in 1938
- Builder
- - American Bridge Co. of New York (Lassig branch in Chicago, Illinois)
- Design
- Pratt through truss
- Dimensions
-
Length of largest span: 149.0 ft.
Total length: 600.1 ft.
Deck width: 12.8 ft.
Vertical clearance above deck: 16.7 ft.
- Recognition
- Posted to the National Register of Historic Places on May 15, 1998
- Approximate latitude, longitude
- +41.31711, -92.91028 (decimal degrees)
41°19'02" N, 92°54'37" W (degrees°minutes'seconds") - Approximate UTM coordinates
- 15/507509/4573964 (zone/easting/northing)
- Land survey
- T. 75 N., R. 18 W., Sec. 10
- USGS topographic map
- Harvey
- Inventory numbers
- NRHP 98000502 (National Register of Historic Places reference number)
IA 239640 (Iowa bridge number)
BH 13995 (Bridgehunter.com ID) - Inspection (as of 03/2011)
- Deck condition rating: Fair (5 out of 9)
Superstructure condition rating: Poor (4 out of 9)
Substructure condition rating: Serious (3 out of 9)
Appraisal: Structurally deficient
Sufficiency rating: 36.4 (out of 100) - Average daily traffic (as of 2006)
- 20
Update Log
- April 3, 2013: Updated by Luke Harden: Added categories "Railroad", "Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad"
- April 5, 2012: Updated by Luke Harden: Added categories "Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad", "Rail-to-road", "Pin-connected", "Wrought iron"
- September 8, 2011: New photos from Jason Smith
- September 24, 2007: Posted all new photos from J.R. Manning
Sources
- J.R. Manning - thekitchenguy [at] sbcglobal [dot] net
- Historic Bridges of Iowa
- Jason Smith - JDSmith77 [at] gmx [dot] net
- Flickr
Comments
I think some investigation and possibly review of this bridge's history is in order. I looked up old CB&Q system maps, and they do not show the line from Oskaloosa crossing at this point, but crossing at Tracy where the M&STL bridge was. I believe this bridge was a Rock Island bridge from the beginning. If you look at the 1930s aerial imagery, the line doesn't even go to Oskaloosa directly, but branches off the Rock Island's KD line northeast of town.
The CB&Q must've used the railroad bridge at Tracy, as the line joined the current day BNSF line to Des Moines here, and then went right into Knoxville. Some more research and review must be done on this bridge, too. I doubt the M&STL built the first Des Moines River bridge at Tracy. They probably simply shared trackage rights over the bridge with the CB&Q. The fact that the 2nd bridge at that location was built from pieces of a CB&Q bridge from Plattsmouth further hints to a direct connection with that railroad.
The fact that the given history of the CB&Q bridge doesn't jive with the bridge at Harvey further backs me up. Are they really referring to the first bridge at Tracy?
In addition to that, the date of 1878 is almost certainly incorrect. While it was not unusual for rail bridges to have been constructed of steel at this time, the portal style was commonly used by American Bridge Company and Lassig Bridge & Iron Works after 1885. It might not be impossible that it was built 1878, as all sources say it was, but I don't think that is the build date of the current bridge.
Very interesting, because this ties into some research I just did. The Rock Island built the second rail line that reached Knoxville in 1876, just one year after the CB&Q. I always wondered where the Rock Island bridge was. They must have decided it was better to tie into the CB&Q at some point and use their bridge, rather than building another one. The Rock Island might have retained use of the bridge longer than the Burlington did; they abandoned service in 1938, which is the exact year the bridge ceased being used for rail traffic.
The aerial imagery says this bridge was CRI&P back in the 30s.
This page's URL is http://bridgehunter.com/ia/marion/harvey/