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First Cairo Railroad Bridge

Alexander County, Illinois, and Ballard County, Kentucky
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Photos 

Book photo: Overview

This photo comes from George S. Morison's 1892 book, "The Cairo Bridge"

Photo archived by the Historic American Engineering Record

Map 

Facts 

Overview
Lost through and deck truss bridge over the Ohio River carrying the Illinois Central Railroad in Cairo
Location
Cairo, Alexander County, Illinois, and Ballard County, Kentucky
Status
Replaced by the current bridge, reusing many of the piers in the process
History
Built 1889 under engineer George S. Morison; replaced 1949-52
Builders
- Alfred Noble of Stockholm, Sweden
- E.L. Corthell
- George S. Morison of New Bedford, Massachusetts
- Union Bridge Co.
Design
From Illinois to Kentucky:
One Pratt deck truss span, 106 ft.
Seventeen Pratt deck truss spans, each 150 ft.
Two pin-connected, 17-panel Whipple through truss spans, each 518.5 ft.
Seven Whipple through truss spans, each 400 ft.
Three Pratt deck truss spans, each 249 ft.
Twenty-one Pratt deck truss spans, each 150 ft.
One Pratt deck truss span, 106 ft.
Dimensions
Length of largest span: 518.5 ft.
Total length: 20,461.0 ft. (3.9 mi.)
Also called
The Grandest Bridge in the World
Approximate latitude, longitude
+37.02302, -89.17532   (decimal degrees)
37°01'23" N, 89°10'31" W   (degrees°minutes'seconds")
Approximate UTM coordinates
16/306493/4099639 (zone/easting/northing)
USGS topographic map
Cairo
Inventory number
BH 15012 (Bridgehunter.com ID)

Categories 

19th Century (4,240)
Alexander County, Illinois (27)
Alfred Noble (2)
Ballard County, Kentucky (5)
Built 1889 (133)
Built during 1880s (1,144)
Cairo, Illinois (10)
E.L. Corthell (3)
George S. Morison (20)
HAER documented (813)
Illinois (2,628)
Illinois Central Railroad (280)
Kentucky (727)
 Lost 1951 (10)
Lost during 1950s (146)
Ohio River (99)
Over a mile long (209)
Owned by railroad (5,344)
Pin-connected (1,739)
Span length 500-1000 feet (327)
State line crossing (561)
Through truss (10,026)
Total length over 2500 feet (637)
Truss (24,729)
Union Bridge Co. (34)
Whipple truss (167)

Update Log 

  • February 21, 2014: New photo from Mark Frazier
  • March 13, 2006: Posted new photos

Sources 

  • HAER IL-36 - Cairo Railroad Bridge
  • HAER NE-2 - (Behemoths: The Great River Bridges of George S. Morison)
  • Mark Frazier - mfrazier [at] kc [dot] rr [dot] com
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Comments 

First Cairo Railroad Bridge
Posted December 9, 2006, by Greg

This Bridge is huge