EIRR - Snake River Bridge
Photos
EIRR-Snake River Bridge
Looking SW
Photo taken by Royce and Bobette Haley in August 2014
BH Photo #297011
Facts
- Overview
- Whipple through truss bridge over Snake River on Eastern Idaho Railroad (EIRR)
- Location
- Heyburn, Cassia County, Idaho, and Minidoka County, Idaho
- Status
- Open to traffic
- History
- Built Ca. 1890
- Builder
- - George S. Morison of New Bedford, Massachusetts (Probable Designer Based On Style)
- Railroad
- - Eastern Idaho Railroad (EIRR)
- Design
- Two Double-intersection Whipple through truss main spans with Three steel plate girder approach spans
- Dimensions
-
Length of largest span: 250.0 ft.
Total length: 750.0 ft.
Deck width: 15.0 ft.
- Also called
- Burley-Heyburn Railrod Bridge
- Approximate latitude, longitude
- +42.54847, -113.76512 (decimal degrees)
42°32'54" N, 113°45'54" W (degrees°minutes'seconds") - Approximate UTM coordinates
- 12/272968/4714380 (zone/easting/northing)
- Quadrangle map:
- Burley
- Inventory number
- BH 51870 (Bridgehunter.com ID)
Update Log
- October 25, 2016: Updated by Nathan Holth: Added probable designer.
- October 3, 2014: New photos from Royce and Bobette Haley
- March 25, 2012: Added by Mike Goff
Related Bridges
- Murtaugh Bridge (Downstream) - Two modern bridges between structures
- UP - American Falls Bridge (Upstream) - Eight modern bridges between structures
Sources
- Mike Goff - michael [dot] goff [at] hotmail [dot] com
- Royce and Bobette Haley - roycehaley111 [at] yahoo [dot] com
- Nathan Holth
Comments
The second Omaha bridge had four 250-foot, eleven-panel Whipple trusses, and two tracks. The first Plattsmouth bridge's two Whipple spans were moved to a Des Moines River bridge, UP moved Pegram trusses to Idaho, and C&NW moved spans from the first Blair bridge to Wyoming. Some chance that these two spans are from Omaha?
Surprised nobody has commented about this bridge. The bridge shows evidence of widespread alteration, since there are a massive number of empty river holes on the portal and sway bracing. My first guess would be that the bridge was narrowed... which also makes one wonder if the bridge was relocated and reused at this location. It would be interesting to know. Finally, taking into consideration the alterations, what I can see of the bridge leads me to believe that this bridge may be the work of famous engineer George Morison. The large lattice portal and sway bracing, Whipple truss configuration, and the arrangement and composition of some of the truss members are what suggests this possibility.
This page's URL is http://bridgehunter.com/id/cassia/bh51870/
John and I had the exact same thought a couple of days ago.
An article on the construction of the new bridge confirms that they were relocated:
(Clipping source: https://books.google.com/books?id=zhY4AQAAMAAJ&q=rolling+a+n... )