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Rockford Illinois Railway Rock River Bridge

Winnebago County, Illinois
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Photos 

Overview Looking Southeast

Photo taken by J.R. Manning in July 2011

Map 

Facts 

Overview
Through truss bridge over Rock River on Illinois Railway (former CB&Q) in Rockford
Location
Rockford, Winnebago County, Illinois
Status
Open to traffic
Builder
- King Bridge Co. of Cleveland, Ohio
Design
5 spans of through truss 1 deck plate girder on East end
Dimensions
Total length: 900.0 ft.
Approximate latitude, longitude
+42.26491, -89.09565   (decimal degrees)
42°15'54" N, 89°05'44" W   (degrees°minutes'seconds")
Approximate UTM coordinates
16/327161/4681315 (zone/easting/northing)
USGS topographic map
Rockford North
Inventory number
BH 41899 (Bridgehunter.com ID)

Categories 

Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad (130)
Deck girder (1,835)
Girder (3,292)
Illinois (2,501)
Illinois Railway (4)
King Bridge Co. (162)
Open (28,458)
Owned by railroad (4,123)
Plate girder (2,289)
Pratt through truss (3,185)
 Pratt truss (5,689)
Railroad (4,226)
Rock River (Wisconsin-Illinois) (41)
Rockford, Illinois (18)
Skewed (4,083)
Through truss (9,256)
Total length 500-1000 feet (1,820)
Truss (23,618)
Winnebago County, Illinois (37)

Update Log 

  • April 3, 2012: Updated by Steve Conro: Corrected railroad name
  • November 23, 2011: New photos from Steve Conro
  • July 20, 2011: New photos from J.R. Manning
  • March 29, 2009: Added by Kim Harvey

Sources 

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Comments 

Rockford CNRR Rock River Bridge
Posted December 1, 2011, by Mike (mschaf4001 [at] earthlink [dot] net)

This is not the Canadian National bridge; the through-truss bridge shown here originally belonged to the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy (later, Burlington Northern). It is currently owned by the Illinois Railway and also used by Canadian PACIFIC's Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railraod. This bridge is slated to be closed to rail traffic in 2012, with trains being rerouted around it on the Illinois Central (now CNRR) bridge a short distance to the south.

Side note: The CB&Q through-truss bridge shown here replaced a covered bridge, probably in the late 1800s. Covered railroad bridges were extremely rare in the Midwest.