Arsenal Bridge

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Iowa shore looking south

Photo taken by Nathan Morton in Sept. 07

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Street View

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 (RI; CRIP; ROCK)
- 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: Posted to the National Register of Historic Places
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 (as of 09/2002): Deck condition rating: Good (7 out of 9)
Superstructure condition rating: Good (7 out of 9)
Substructure condition rating: Satisfactory (6 out of 9)
Appraisal: Functionally obsolete
Sufficiency rating: 44.5 (out of 100)
Average daily traffic (as of 2014): 9,900

Owned by Corps of Engineers (81)
Owned by federal government (984)
Phoenix Bridge Co. (133)
Pin-connected (3,093)
Pratt through truss (4,555)
Pratt truss (7,945)
Rail-and-Road (311)
Railroad (12,982)
Ralph Modjeski (45)
River To River Road (20)
Riveted (1,842)
Rock Island County, Illinois (64)
Scott County, Iowa (98)
Span length 250-500 feet (1,075)
State line crossing (724)
Steel stringer (4,600)
Streetcar (210)
Swing (1,241)
Through truss (12,827)
Total length 1000-2500 feet (1,642)
Tri-City Railway & Light Co. (8)
Truss (29,321)
U.S. Army (13)
US 32 (13)
US 6 (112)
United Light & Railways (29)
X-Frame Portal (32)

Update Log

August 8, 2017: New Street View added by Luke
April 16, 2017: New photos from David Sebben
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 (Predecessor) - Second RI Bridge Across the river

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
John Marvig Railroad Bridge Photography
David Sebben

Comments

Government Bridge

Posted April 19, 2012, by Nathan Holth (form3 [at] historicbridges [dot] org)

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...