Oak Hill Cemetery Bridge
Description
This bridge was listed on the "to do" for "crosses unknown creek". I'm going to go out on a limb and guess its the original bridge that crossed the Sangamon just South of the cemetery. Its the only place around here that would have needed a bridge this long. The road is now Cherokee Rd but I suspect it was Cemetery at one time. If anyone has better knowledge of this please feel free to edit this.Plaque shown in photo is a Vincennes BC plaque and is suggestive of other spans they built around 1910.
Facts
- Overview
- Lost 4-span Pratt through truss bridge over S Fork Sangamon River on Cemetary Road
- Location
- Christian County, Illinois
- Status
- Lost
- History
- Built ca. 1910 by the Vincennes Bridge Company
- Builder
- - Vincennes Bridge Co. of Vincennes, Indiana
- Design
- 4-span, pin-connected Pratt through truss
- Approximate latitude, longitude
- +39.53760, -89.28843 (decimal degrees)
39°32'15" N, 89°17'18" W (degrees°minutes'seconds") - Approximate UTM coordinates
- 16/303338/4378938 (zone/easting/northing)
- USGS topographic map
- Taylorville
- Inventory number
- BH 43518 (Bridgehunter.com ID)
Update Log
- June 24, 2012: Updated by Tony Dillon: added builder
- November 20, 2011: Updated by Steve Conro: Added river and GPS info
- October 19, 2009: Added by Kim Harvey
Related Bridges
- S Fork Sangamon River Bridge (Predecessor) - Replaced Oak Hill Cemetery Bridge
Sources
- Kim Harvey
- postcard
- second postcard
- Steve Conro - sconro [at] yahoo [dot] com
- Tony Dillon - spansaver [at] hotmail [dot] com
Comments
Here is a picture of the old Oak Hill Cemetery Bridge. I crossed this bridge many times growing up. At one time, there was a picture of it at the Christian County Historical Society museum as well. It's a shame it was destroyed. I don't remember if the street was named Cherokee back then or not. We always just called it the Cemetery Bridge Road. I miss this bridge!
There was also a bridge like this one that crossed that same section of the south fork about a mile on southwest on the Nokomis Road/Shumway Co Hwy 1. It was removed probably close to 40 years ago. I remember crossing it as a child. At one time you could see the old abutments and peers, but from the view on google maps, all the trees and underbrush have taken over. I wish someone could locate some information and a picture of that bridge too.
This page's URL is http://bridgehunter.com/il/christian/oak-hill-cemetery/