Rating:
3 votes
Heartway Trail - Shady Rest Bridge
Facts
- Overview
- Pratt through truss bridge over Sangamon River on the Heartland Pathways, a rail trail converted from the former Illinois Central rail line
- Location
- Piatt County, Illinois
- Status
- Open to pedestrians
- History
- Built 1890
- Railroad
- - Illinois Central Railroad (IC; ICG (1972-1988))
- Design
- Pratt through truss
- Dimensions
-
Span length: 159.0 ft.
Total length: 159.0 ft.
- Also called
- IC - Sangamon River Bridge
- Approximate latitude, longitude
- +40.09374, -88.53184 (decimal degrees)
40°05'37" N, 88°31'55" W (degrees°minutes'seconds") - Approximate UTM coordinates
- 16/369418/4439285 (zone/easting/northing)
- Quadrangle map:
- Monticello
- Inventory number
- BH 46414 (Bridgehunter.com ID)
Update Log
- March 30, 2015: Updated by John Marvig: Added information
- October 5, 2010: New photos from J.P.
- October 5, 2010: Added by James McCray
Sources
- James McCray - jamesinslocomb [at] yahoo [dot] com
- J.P. - wildcatjon2000 [at] gmail [dot] com
- John Marvig - marvigj27 [at] gmail [dot] com
Comments
Re: Shady Rest Bridge age
When was it built?
Trying to guess a truss bridge age from photos is tricky. One of Murphy's law corollaries is that none of the photos will include what I want to see. *smiles* And as bridge technology advanced, not every building progressed at the same rate.
That said, it is pin-connected, thus probably prior 1925. The eye-bars are upset, which often means later than 1890. The lower joint pins are at the very bottom, which suggest older as does the knee-braced sway braces.
So, based only on what I can see from the limited detail of the pictures, I'd guess 1895 to 1910.
But that is pretty close to a _wild_ guess.
Shady Rest Bridge
when was this bridge built?
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This page's URL is http://bridgehunter.com/il/piatt/shady-rest/
This page's URL is http://bridgehunter.com/il/piatt/shady-rest/
I found an Illinois Central map for this area (Springfield Division), which lists the two similar IC bridges in this county as being built in 1890. Hope that answers any past questions.