Bridgehunter.com | UP - North Skunk River Bridge

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Photo provided by Hank Zaletel

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BH Photo #246153

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Description

Build date provided by ICC Valuation Summary Report, courtesy Doug Harding collection. Builder courtesy of the Hagley Museum & Library, Phoenix Bridge Company records

Facts

Overview: Schaub Through Truss Bridge over North Skunk River on Union Pacific Railroad
Location: New Sharon, Poweshiek County, Iowa
Status: Open to traffic
History: Built 1902
Builder: - Phoenix Bridge Co. of Phoenixville, Pennsylvania
Railroads: - Chicago & North Western Railway (CNW)
- Minneapolis & St. Louis Railway (MSTL)
- Union Pacific Railroad (UP)
Design: 138' Subdivided Warren Through Truss with 16 Span Trestle Approaches
Dimensions: Length of largest span: 138.0 ft.
Total length: 351.0 ft.
Also called: M&StL - North Skunk River Bridge
Approximate latitude, longitude: +41.50940, -92.65243 (decimal degrees)
41°30'34" N, 92°39'09" W (degrees°minutes'seconds")
Approximate UTM coordinates: 15/529005/4595365 (zone/easting/northing)
Quadrangle map:: Searsboro
Inventory number: BH 55076 (Bridgehunter.com ID)

Update Log

December 2, 2021: Updated by John Marvig: added builder
May 17, 2019: Updated by John Marvig: added build date from ICC records
September 12, 2017: New photos from John Marvig
October 27, 2014: Updated by John Marvig: added build date
September 2, 2013: New photos from Dave King
July 2, 2013: New photos from John Marvig
July 1, 2013: Updated by John Marvig: Changed design to Warren Through Truss
March 2, 2013: Updated by John Marvig: Bridge is NOT lost, added dimensions
January 2, 2013: Added by Luke Harden

Related Bridges

IARR - Iowa River Bridge (Albion) (Same design)
IARR - Iowa River Bridge (Union) (Same design)
SIRy - Chariton River Bridge (Same design)

Sources

Luke
Flickr
John Marvig - marvigj27 [at] gmail [dot] com
Dave King - DKinghawkfan [at] hotmail [dot] com
Annual report of the Minneapolis and St. Louis Railroad ... 1894/95-1908/09. - HathiTrust Digital Library - Info

Comments

UP - North Skunk River Bridge

Posted October 17, 2016, by Dylan VanAntwerp (dylan_vanantwerp [at] live [dot] com)

We have a skunk problem here...

I was looking at this bridge entry and found something amiss. This bridge was listed as crossing the Skunk River, when it actually crosses its tributary, the North Skunk. The Skunk River proper doesn't start until Keokuk County where the two branches join, which is southeast of this bridge.

I checked the Skunk River category, and the vast majority of bridges that are listed as crossing the Skunk River actually cross either the north or south tributary. This means we have several dozen entries that actually have the incorrect waterway listed. I corrected this particular entry, but that is the only one I personally fixed.

Part of the problem seems to be that NBI data doesn't seem to differentiate between north or south rivers. If somebody has time to kill, we have many, many entries that need corrected. I added a category for the North Skunk River and placed this bridge in it.