Wabash Railroad Bridge #176.??
View looking south from I-55
Photo taken by James Holzmeier in November 2014
License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA)
BH Photo #308981
This entry was completed with a different document than what I have in my possession now. Will check the new documentation to see if new information is provided.
NBI says 1962
Not sure how the date is 1939 as this is over I-55 which wasn't built until the early 1960's. The line was paralleled by the Illinois Terminal as it left Springfield/Starnes Station which some remnants exist and the IT portion was abandoned after 1956. There was no bridge for the IT built? I think the date is wrong unless it was moved here from somewhere else.
OK, here goes. The Wabash RR Bridge Book I now have lists Bridge 177.5 as being (by my calculations) 3.54 miles west of Bridge #173 over the Sangamon River, in Riverton. Using Google Earth I calculated that the Bridge #177.5 reflected in the Bridge Book should actually be an overhead-grade bridge carrying US Rt. 66 over 3 railroads (Illinois Terminal, Wabash and Illinois Central) at Starne, Illinois. So...Bridge #177.5 is now IL Rt. 29, or Dirksen Hwy, which is Old Rt. 66.
Therefore, I am changing this particular bridge to reflect an unknown Wabash bridge number. It should be Bridge #176.__. Since, as reflected by an earlier commenter, it was erected in 1962, it would still have been a Wabash RR bridge and as such would have been assigned a Wabash bridge number.
More to follow. When I can find out the official bridge number, I'll update the entry.
Thank you for your input!!
James Holzmeier
Wabash Railroad Historical Society