Spoon River Bridge
Photos
South portal
It's not possible to get closer than this without crossing beyond a No Tresspassing sign.
Photo taken by Fmiser in June 2012
License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike (CC BY-SA)
BH Photo #234716
Description
A Parker truss bridge over the Spoon river near its mouth. While this is a metal highway bridge and it is in Fulton county, this was not one of the nine listed in the NRHP submission "Metal Highway Bridges of Fulton County Thematic Resources", 1980-10-29. It could easily have fit within the theme.Facts
- Overview
- Abandoned parker through truss bridge over Spoon River on Abandoned TR 388
- Location
- Fulton County, Illinois
- Status
- Destroyed by flooding
- History
- Built 1900
- Design
- Parker through truss with an intact concrete deck
- Dimensions
-
Length of largest span: 155.8 ft.
Total length: 171.9 ft.
Deck width: 13.1 ft.
- Also called
- Forgotten Rd. Bridge
- Approximate latitude, longitude
- +40.30160, -90.08996 (decimal degrees)
40°18'06" N, 90°05'24" W (degrees°minutes'seconds") - Approximate UTM coordinates
- 15/747321/4465296 (zone/easting/northing)
- Quadrangle map:
- Havana
- Elevation
- 449 ft. above sea level
- Inventory numbers
- IL 029-3144 (Illinois bridge number)
BH 49866 (Bridgehunter.com ID)
Update Log
- November 17, 2016: Updated by Fmiser: Changed status to "destroyed by flood"
- April 24, 2014: New photo from Elliott Johnson
- April 23, 2014: Updated by Elliott Johnson: added deck information
- July 7, 2012: New photo from Fmiser
- October 18, 2011: Added by J.P.
Sources
- J.P. - wildcatjon2000 [at] gmail [dot] com
- Fmiser - fmiser [at] gmail [dot] com
- Elliott Johnson - elliottsgon15 [at] hotmail [dot] com
Comments
If bridge at end by emoquon,looks like fell in water, if updating info
Thank you Elliott for the license change. *smiles*
I'm posting a message to the general forum (not just this bridge) with a summary of the license options.
i changed the licensing on these photos to creative commons so you can download them if you want, I do this as a hobby that I really enjoy, and I would like as many people to enjoy my pictures as possible since some of the locations that Ive visited are very difficult to approach, Shelby county being the worst ive visited so far. It's all in the thrill of the hunt. can you explain some of these licensing restrictions to me? im tempted to just release them into public domain.
Nice job Elliott!
That north approach was calling my name - I just couldn't get there to see if I could get through. I'm glad you did and got all those photos.
I noticed that none of your photos have any copyright/license information. Since you didn't specify something else, it defaults to "all rights reserved" - which means I can't lawfully copy the picture to my computer.
I'd sure encourage you to choose one of the CreativeCommons licenses so I could put a couple of your photos in with my collection. If you choose not to, that's fine too. They are your pictures. *smiles* I'll just have to visit Bridgehunter to view them.
I made the trip to the area yesterday and let me just say, it is very possible to approach from the north but the alignment of road past the wildlife preserve is way too far gone to be approached by any vehicle, especially being in the Illinois River flood plain. I walked from the public hunting area until I got to an overflow where the "road" just stops and it looks like there used to be a bridge there but I was able to get around it since the area was so dry. I have pictures of the area between that marsh and the bridge itself but I was sure to get plenty of pictures so nobody else would have to make that trip. I ran into another no trespassing sign but only at the south end of the bridge and I never went past that point nor did I see anybody watching me.
Thanks for the map link. It shows pretty much the same thing I already had - and that it appears possible to get to the bridge from the north.
Perhaps this map of the county roads will help you find a way to the bridge that is public property.
There is a "No Trespassing" sign on the road from the south. The sign is about 750 ft (230 m) from IL97. Looking at satellite images - after my visit - suggests it might be possible to get to the bridge from the north, and it appears the bridge may still have a deck. However, those No Tresspassing signs are hard to spot in the satellite photos.
This page's URL is http://bridgehunter.com/il/fulton/bh49866/
I walked out to the bridge site from the south (after dark, so no pictures) - but it's down. Rubble from the truss is still in the river. This is not one of the registered "Nine Metal Highway Bridges of Fulton County Thematic Resources", but it's still sad.
On public property, with an old roadbed to make it easy to tie in to the hiking trails - it would have been nice it it had been maintained and made accessible to pedestrians. Too late now, though.