Rating:
9 votes
Arsenal Bridge (1896)
Description
This double-deck through truss bridge carries road traffic on its lower level, and rail traffic on its upper level. The swing span can rotate 360 degrees, which shortens the time the road and railroad are closed to allow a boat to pass, compared to a bridge that only swings 90 degrees and then swings back. After an opening, what was the north end of the swing span will be at the south end and vice-versa. See the animated gif under Photos to watch it operate. Support for overhead wires mounted atop swing span, over bridgetender's house, rotates opposite the swing span itself, in exact synchronization; it remains stationary relative to the ground while the structure beneath it, on which it is mounted, rotates.Facts
- Overview
- Baltimore through truss bridge over Mississippi River on 2 lanes of traffic and 2 rail lines in Davenport
- Location
- Davenport, Scott County, Iowa, and Rock Island County, Illinois
- Status
- Open to traffic
- History
- Built 1896, Rehabilitated 1983 & 1997
- Builders
- - Phoenix Bridge Co. of Phoenixville, Pennsylvania
- Ralph Modjeski of Bochnia, Poland (Engineer)
- U.S. Army of Washington, D.C. (Ordnance Department)
- Railroads
- - Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad (CRIP (1866-1920); RI (1920-1975) ROCK (1975-1980))
- Iowa Interstate Railroad (IAIS)
- Streetcar
- Tri-City Railway & Light Co. (TCR&L)
- United Light & Railways (UL&R)
- Design
- Baltimore through truss swing bridge with pratt truss and steel beam approaches.
- Dimensions
-
Length of largest span: 370.1 ft.
Total length: 1,854.0 ft.
Deck width: 25.3 ft.
Vertical clearance above deck: 11.0 ft.
- Recognition
- Listed as a contributing resource to the Lock and Dam No. 15 Historic District
- Also called
- Government Bridge
Rock Island Bridge - Approximate latitude, longitude
- +41.51917, -90.56694 (decimal degrees)
41°31'09" N, 90°34'01" W (degrees°minutes'seconds") - Approximate UTM coordinates
- 15/703017/4599250 (zone/easting/northing)
- Quadrangle map:
- Davenport East
- Inventory numbers
- IL 000-0008 (Illinois bridge number)
IA 699340 (Iowa bridge number)
IA 2910 (Iowa bridge number)
BH 38082 (Bridgehunter.com ID) - Inspection report (as of September 2002)
- Overall condition: Fair
Superstructure condition rating: Good (7 out of 9)
Substructure condition rating: Satisfactory (6 out of 9)
Deck condition rating: Good (7 out of 9)
Sufficiency rating: 74.8 (out of 100)
View more at BridgeReports.com
Update Log
- February 28, 2022: New photo from Douglas Butler
- September 19, 2021: Updated by Luke: Reverted titled to reflect that this bridge was a temporary span
- August 12, 2021: Updated by Nathan Holth: Corrected truss type.
- August 9, 2021: Updated by Luke: Reverted name back to the one Doug made the entry with to avoid confusion with the proper entry
- January 31, 2021: New photo from Luke
- December 29, 2020: New photo from Tony Dillon
- October 29, 2020: Updated by Mike Kerkau: NRHP listing - bridge is not currently listed on its own, but is contributor to listed district
- May 4, 2018: New Street View added by Leslie R Trick
- October 7, 2017: New photos from John Marvig
- August 8, 2017: New Street View added by Luke
- April 16, 2017: New photos from David Sebben
- January 23, 2017: New photo from Luke
- January 23, 2017: Added by Douglas Butler
- September 15, 2016: Updated by Christopher Finigan: Added category "Riveted"
- September 14, 2016: Updated by Roger Deschner: Added category ""Truck Eating""
- December 1, 2015: New Street View added by Douglas Butler
- August 19, 2015: Updated by Luke: Added categories "IA 7", "IL 7", "US 32", "US 6"
- April 26, 2015: New photo from Paul Hamby
- March 27, 2015: New photo from Luke
- January 10, 2015: Updated by Luke: Added categories "Tri-City Railway & Light Co.", "United Light & Railways", "Streetcar".
- June 29, 2014: New Street View added by Ralph Demars
- May 4, 2014: Updated by Roger Deschner: Added category "Lattice Railing"
- January 19, 2014: New Street View added by Luke Harden
- July 15, 2013: Updated by Roger Deschner: Add description, photos including animated gif of swing span operating
- March 22, 2013: Updated by Luke Harden: Added category "HAER documented"
- January 10, 2013: New photos from John Marvig
- December 28, 2012: Updated by John Marvig: corrected total length-this bridge isn't 11,000 feet long
- October 4, 2012: Updated by John Marvig: Added category "Center Pivot Swing Span"
- August 18, 2012: Updated by Luke Harden: Added builder
- May 24, 2012: Updated by Luke Harden: Added category "Navigable waterway"
- May 11, 2012: Updated by Luke Harden: Added builder, US Army was the primary builder according to the plaque.
- April 19, 2012: Updated by Luke Harden: Changed name to the name most often used by the locals
- October 8, 2011: Photo imported by Luke Harden
- July 25, 2011: New photos from Luke Harden
- June 14, 2011: New photo from Bob Morgan
- February 24, 2011: Updated by Nathan Holth: Merged NBI Data.
- April 16, 2010: New Street View added by James Baughn
- November 14, 2008: New photo from Nathan Morton
- November 13, 2008: Added by Nathan Morton
Related Bridges
- Government Bridge (1872) (Predecessor)
Sources
- Nathan Morton - morton890 [at] yahoo [dot] com
- Nathan Holth
- HAER IL-20-P - Rock Island Arsenal, Rock Island Bridge, Fort Armstrong Avenue, Rock Island, Rock Island, IL
- Lock and Dam 15 webcam #2 - view of lock chambers and Government Bridge swing span
- Bob Morgan - morgans212 [at] att [dot] net
- Luke
- Wikipedia
- Flickr - Plaque
- John Marvig - marvigj27 [at] gmail [dot] com
- Roger Deschner - rogerdeschner [at] gmail [dot] com
- Douglas Butler
- Tony Dillon - spansaver [at] hotmail [dot] com
- John Marvig Railroad Bridge Photography
- Douglas Butler
- Historicbridges.org - Info From Nathan Holth
- Luke
- David Sebben
- Leslie R Trick - Leslie [dot] Trick [at] gmail [dot] com
- Mike Kerkau - mjkerkau [at] gmail [dot] com
- National Register of Historic Places Registration Form for the Upper Mississippi River Federal Navigation Projects
- Nathan Holth
Comments
Arsenal Bridge (1895)
Nathan,
Thanks for clarifying.
On a separate note, there isn't a Post deck truss category. If a Post deck truss is put in the 'other deck truss' category and labeled as such in the detailed description, it doesn't come up when searching for Post trusses.
Probably only relevant to me but I thought I'd point it out.
Sincerely,
Art S.
Arsenal Bridge (1895)
(Doug made it.)
Arsenal Bridge (1895)
Art,
I am not sure, particularly as I am unsure who even put the Post truss designation on this page. This page appears to have been created to reflect only the temporary lift span that only existed until the current bridge was completed. It looks like a Whipple truss to me.
Arsenal Bridge (1895)
Nathan,
Can you shed some light on this for me? Its listed as a Post Truss but the image here and those on your site show (vertical endpost) Whipples. Just curious if the Post trusses are just not photographed or there is an error.
Sincerely,
Art S.
Arsenal Bridge
Added the NRHP Registration Form for Lock and Dam No. 15. (Apparently there's a whole book of forms that concern Historic Places on the Upper Mississippi, but I did set the link for where Lock and Dam is in the book.)
Government Bridge
Another copy of the report on this bridge shows a bunch of photos at the end: http://books.google.com/books?id=UY8dAQAAIAAJ&dq=Rock%20Isla...
Government Bridge
I added Ralph Modjeski as builder for this bridge. This was the first bridge in which the famous engineer was Chief Engineer on.
© Copyright 2021, Historic Bridge Foundation and contributors.
This page's URL is http://bridgehunter.com/ia/scott/government/
This page's URL is http://bridgehunter.com/ia/scott/government/
I don't know which person made this the immediate "predecessor" for the 1896 Arsenal/Governenment bridge and not the CORRECT 1872 listing, but perhaps, so it doesn't happen again, it should be merged into the main entry for the 1896 bridge, as it was constructed as part of its construction.