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DMU Raccoon River Bridge

Polk County, Iowa
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Photo 

Photo taken by Dick Tinder

Video 

"Des Moines Old Haunted Bridge"

Some video someone made in 2003.

Play video on YouTube

Map 

Description 

The bridge was built to connect the Rock Island, the Wabash, the Milwaukee Road and the M&STL to the CGW Bell Ave Yard. The Des Moines Union Railway built it.

Facts 

Overview
Lost Through truss bridge over Raccoon River on Railroad
Location
Des Moines, Polk County, Iowa
Status
Removed
History
Removed 2005
Design
1-70' Through Plate Girder Span
2-130' Baltimore through truss Spans
1-70' Through Plate Girder Span
190' of beam/stringer
Dimensions
Length of largest span: 130.0 ft.
Total length: 590.0 ft.
Approximate latitude, longitude
+41.57260, -93.62821   (decimal degrees)
41°34'21" N, 93°37'42" W   (degrees°minutes'seconds")
Approximate UTM coordinates
15/447625/4602515 (zone/easting/northing)
USGS topographic map
Des Moines SW
Inventory number
BH 52708 (Bridgehunter.com ID)

Categories 

Baltimore through truss (149)
Baltimore truss (163)
Beam (6,048)
Des Moines Union Railway (2)
Des Moines, Iowa (64)
Girder (3,239)
Iowa (3,506)
Lost (10,368)
Lost 2005 (325)
Lost during 2000s (3,091)
 Plate girder (2,251)
Polk County, Iowa (114)
Raccoon River (60)
Span length 125-175 feet (2,954)
Steel stringer (2,325)
Through girder (1,135)
Through truss (9,210)
Total length 500-1000 feet (1,805)
Truss (23,574)

Update Log 

  • May 10, 2013: New photo from Luke Harden
  • July 29, 2012: Updated by Luke Harden: Moved text from history section to description section
  • June 24, 2012: Updated by Luke Harden: Added categories "Raccoon River", "Des Moines Union Railway"

Sources 

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Comments 

Raccoon River Railroad Bridge
Posted June 24, 2012, by John Marvig (johnmarvig [at] chaska [dot] net)

The bridge was also clearly very severely flood damaged...

Raccoon River Railroad Bridge
Posted June 24, 2012, by John Marvig (johnmarvig [at] chaska [dot] net)

The line was a downtown line built by the DMU (Des Moines Union Railway). The bridge was Baltimore.

These documents can explain almost everything.

http://www.stb.dot.gov/ect1/ecorrespondence.nsf/PublicIncomingByDocketNumber/137CBD8A08A363FC85256F9A006901A4/$File/EI-1384.pdf?OpenElement

http://www.stb.dot.gov/filings/all.nsf/457f7ba95a516a62852567d900574766/6350100da1fd683485256ead006e92c5/$FILE/211313.pdf

If someone has any photo of this bridge, please step up and contribute it.

Page 96 in the M&STL track chart will show where it went.

In the Iowa Rail Abandonedment Log, it is on page 23 and it is AB-6-(sub 401X)

View attachment #1 (PDF document, version 1.4, 17810036 bytes)

View attachment #2 (PDF document, version 1.5, 461722 bytes)