BGCM - Orofino Creek Bridge
Photos
BGCM - Orofino Creek Bridge
Main span side elevation from the southeast.
Photo taken by Mike Goff in June 2022
BH Photo #536082
Description
This is a rare Northern Pacific designed shallow floor plate-lattice through girder of 1895. It was originally installed at Lighting Creek on the NP mainline at Clark Fork Idaho, and carried a cast plate identifying it as such, into the 1970s. Original Cooper engine rating was about E-30, but it may have been strengthened.See Engineering News, V38, 1897/07/08, p23+ & centerfold for background and drawings of this bridge. Also EN V38, 1897/07/15, p45+ & centerfold for related designs.
Facts
- Overview
- Pony/through plate-lattice girder bridge over Orofino Creek on Railroad (BG&CM)
- Location
- Orofino, Clearwater County, Idaho
- Status
- Open to traffic
- History
- Main span built 1895; relocated here 1945
- Builder
- - Milwaukee Bridge & Iron Works of Milwaukee, Wisconsin
- Railroads
- - Bountiful Grain & Craig Mountain Railroad (BGCM)
- Camas Prairie Railroad (CSP)
- Great Northwest Railroad (GRNW)
- Northern Pacific Railway (NP)
- Design
- The original NP designed plate-lattice through girder span, combining plate girder construction at the ends, and a lattice girder in the center half.
- Dimensions
-
Length of largest span: 100.0 ft.
Total length: 150.0 ft.
- Approximate latitude, longitude
- +46.47673, -116.25397 (decimal degrees)
46°28'36" N, 116°15'14" W (degrees°minutes'seconds") - Approximate UTM coordinates
- 11/557268/5147288 (zone/easting/northing)
- Quadrangle map:
- Orofino West
- Inventory number
- BH 56588 (Bridgehunter.com ID)
Update Log
- July 10, 2022: New photos from Mike Goff
- January 31, 2020: Updated by Geoff Hubbs: Added links to video and photo
- January 30, 2020: Updated by John Marvig: Added information from NP bridge records
- March 10, 2018: Updated by Luke: Added builder
- March 9, 2018: Updated by John C Stutz: Updated description, added historical references.
- June 12, 2013: Added by Luke Harden
Sources
- Luke
- John C Stutz
- The Engineering Record, Building Record and Sanitary Engineer, Volume 32 - Book
- John Marvig - marvigj27 [at] gmail [dot] com
- Flickr - David Dahnke photo
- Train coming by Best Western in Orofino Idaho - YouTube - Video by Johnny Johnson
- Geoff Hubbs
- Mike Goff - michael [dot] goff [at] hotmail [dot] com
Comments
Drove right past the Phoenix Whipple in the dark the night before. This wasn't exactly a bridge hunting trip, just got to make a few quick stops. Had I known it was there I definitely would have made it happen.
Fascinating bridge! It is like a more "girdery" approach to bridge design, compared to this one, which is more "trussy"
https://historicbridges.org/bridges/browser/?bridgebrowser=m...
http://bridgehunter.com/mi/gogebic/bh52301/ Mike, Did you make it 20 miles south to the Phoenix Whipple? http://bridgehunter.com/id/lewis/bh56584/
now thats cool! also a great way to cut costs on materials
I have looked at a lot of bridges in my life now and this might be the most interesting structure I have come across from an engineering perspective.
The mid-span truss/lattice web section is quite unique!
Volume numbers for those Engineering News articles? Google Books indexes them by volume.
This page's URL is http://bridgehunter.com/id/clearwater/bh56588/
The Northern Pacific used several unusual "lattice girder" spans during the late 1890s. I have linked two articles regarding some of these designs. Unfortunately, not many remain.
https://archive.org/details/sim_enr_1897-07-08_38_2/page/n4/...
https://archive.org/details/sim_enr_1897-07-15_38_3/page/n13...
Here are a few examples of the differing designs used. Northern Pacific also considered shallow deck trusses and some pony trusses to be "lattice girders" as well.
http://bridgehunter.com/mt/missoula/bh58024/
http://bridgehunter.com/mt/ravalli/bitterroot-railroad/
http://bridgehunter.com/mt/lake/jocko-river-railroad/
http://bridgehunter.com/wa/whitman/bh87973/
http://bridgehunter.com/wi/douglas/bh59721/