Rating:
6 votes

The Arches

Vermilion County, Illinois
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Photos 

Overview, looking east from the south bank

Photo taken by Lori Bernard in November 2009

Map 

Facts 

Overview
Concrete arch bridge over Salt Fork Vermilion River on CSX Transportation southwest of Danville
Location
Danville, Vermilion County, Illinois
Status
Open to traffic
History
Built 1905
Builder
- Bates & Rogers Construction Co. of Chicago, Illinois
Railroads
- Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway (CCC&StL)
- Conrail (CR)
- New York Central Railroad (NYC)
- Penn Central Railroad (PC)
- Peoria & Eastern Railroad (P&E)
Design
Open-spandrel concrete arch
Dimensions
Length of largest span: 100.0 ft.
Total length: 375.0 ft.
Approximate latitude, longitude
+40.11572, -87.64671   (decimal degrees)
40°06'57" N, 87°38'48" W   (degrees°minutes'seconds")
Approximate UTM coordinates
16/444889/4440801 (zone/easting/northing)
Quadrangle map:
Danville SW
Inventory number
BH 37336 (Bridgehunter.com ID)

Categories 

Arch (10,897)
Bates & Rogers Construction Co. (8)
Built 1905 (687)
Built during 1900s (5,789)
Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway (94)
Closed-spandrel arch (3,435)
Conrail (799)
Danville, Illinois (42)
Deck arch (10,150)
Illinois (3,681)
New York Central Railroad (384)
 Open (34,480)
Open-spandrel arch (663)
Owned by railroad (8,949)
Penn Central Railroad (508)
Peoria & Eastern Railroad (13)
Railroad (12,283)
Salt Fork Vermilion River (15)
Span length 100-125 feet (3,826)
Tall Bridges (296)
Total length 250-500 feet (4,257)
Vermilion County, Illinois (113)

Update Log 

  • August 2, 2013: New photo from Jacob P. Bernard
  • October 18, 2011: Updated by Daniel Hopkins: updated cateogory
  • October 17, 2011: New photos from Jacob P. Bernard
  • August 11, 2011: New photo from Jacob P. Bernard
  • February 9, 2011: New photo from Jacob P. Bernard
  • February 8, 2011: New photo from Jacob P. Bernard
  • February 4, 2011: New photo from Jacob P. Bernard
  • August 21, 2010: New photos from Jacob P. Bernard
  • May 15, 2010: New photo from Jacob P. Bernard
  • March 11, 2010: New photo from Jacob P. Bernard
  • March 7, 2010: New photo from Jacob P. Bernard
  • March 4, 2010: New photo from Jacob P. Bernard
  • February 24, 2010: New photos from Jacob P. Bernard
  • February 22, 2010: New photo from Jacob P. Bernard
  • August 28, 2008: Added by Kim Harvey

Related Bridges 

Sources 

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Comments 

CSX - Middle Fork Vermilion River Bridge
Posted November 16, 2014, by Robert V. Hageman (rvhjr1945 [at] gmail [dot] com)

This is actually the Big 4 bridge across the Salt Fork of the Vermilion River. It is misidentified in the title as the Middle Fork. The Vermilion River does not actually start until a couple hundred yards downstream where the North Fork of the Vermilion joins the Salt Fork. The bridge is not usually identified as either the Big 4 Bridge nor the CSX Bridge across the Salt Fork. The local name is "The Arches" given to it by scores of local kids who swam and fished near it.

Salt Fork River Railroad Bridge
Posted July 13, 2014, by Richard Tekulve (canoeindiana [at] yahoo [dot] com)

This is actually the Vermilion River not the Salt Fork Vermilion River. The Salt Fork ends aprox. 4 miles west of here just upstream from the Anderson Hill Bridge. The Salt and Middle forks form the Vermilion River and it flows to the Wabash. I canoed under this bridge last Sunday and it is 60 foot tall at normal water levels. There are several tall railroad bridges in the Danville vicinity.

Big Four Railroad Bridge
Posted July 22, 2010, by Hank Knuth (Hank [dot] knuth [at] gmail [dot] com)

There exists another nearly identical bridge near Marshall, IL

The date on the bridge is 1909.

Big Four Railroad Bridge
Posted July 22, 2010, by Hank Knuth (Hank [dot] knuth [at] gmail [dot] com)

There exists another nearly identical bridge near Marshall, IL

The date on the bridge is 1909.

Big Four Railroad Bridge
Posted June 1, 2010, by Mike Roegner (roegner [at] soltec [dot] net)

If you like looking at engineering drawings, here's a couple.

The bridge was designed under the supervision of W.M. Duane, Superintendent of Construction for the Big Four, and was built by the Bates & Rogers Construction Company of Chicago.

Webmaster's note: The photos that were here have been incorporated into the main site.