Rating:
3 votes

US 40 Wabash River Bridge

Vigo County, Indiana
Share:

Photos 

View South, Elevation Of Bridge - East Portion

Photo taken by Historic American Engineering Record

View photos at Library of Congress

Map 

Facts 

Overview
Lost Deck truss bridge over Wabash River on US 40 in Terre Haute
Location
Terre Haute, Vigo County, Indiana
Status
Replaced by two new bridges
History
Built 1905; rehabilitated 1973; replaced in 1992
Builders
- American Bridge Co. of New York
- J.E.Starbuck
- Lafayette Engineering Co. of Lafayette, Indiana
- Malverd A. Howe
Design
Deck plate girders used for roadway with Pratt deck trusses used for walkways
Dimensions
Length of largest span: 122.1 ft.
Total length: 815.0 ft.
Deck width: 29.9 ft.
Approximate latitude, longitude
+39.46667, -87.42167   (decimal degrees)
39°28'00" N, 87°25'18" W   (degrees°minutes'seconds")
Approximate UTM coordinates
16/463728/4368650 (zone/easting/northing)
USGS topographic map
Terre Haute
Inventory numbers
INNBI 013590 (Indiana bridge number on the National Bridge Inventory)
BH 43890 (Bridgehunter.com ID)
Inspection (as of 02/1988)
Deck condition rating: Fair (5 out of 9)
Superstructure condition rating: Critical (2 out of 9)
Substructure condition rating: Fair (5 out of 9)
Appraisal: Structurally deficient
Sufficiency rating: 3.0 (out of 100)
Average daily traffic (as of 1987)
15,700

Categories 

American Bridge Co. (449)
Built 1905 (550)
Built during 1900s (4,247)
Deck girder (1,802)
Girder (3,239)
HAER documented (782)
Have street view (9,897)
Indiana (3,348)
J.E.Starbuck (1)
Lafayette Engineering Co. (11)
Lost (10,370)
Lost 1992 (398)
 Lost during 1990s (3,217)
Malverd A. Howe (1)
Owned by state (9,809)
Plate girder (2,251)
Replaced by new bridge (7,139)
Span length 100-125 feet (3,300)
Structurally deficient (16,682)
Terre Haute, Indiana (5)
Total length 500-1000 feet (1,805)
US 40 (106)
Vigo County, Indiana (40)
Wabash River (87)

Update Log 

  • December 25, 2010: New Street View added by Sheldon
  • November 24, 2010: New photos from Jacob P. Bernard
  • November 6, 2010: New photos from Jacob P. Bernard
  • February 27, 2010: New photo from Robert Stephenson
  • January 19, 2010: Updated by Anthony Dillon: Changed design to show that this was a plate girder bridge with added Pratt deck trusses on the outsides.
  • January 19, 2010: Updated by Jim Grey: Marked as replaced. This bridge was replaced by twin spans in 1992.
  • January 17, 2010: Updated by Robert Stephenson: HAER data and categories

Sources 

  • Robert Stephenson - seinfeld99 [at] yahoo [dot] com
  • HAER IN-64 - Wabash River Bridge, Spanning Wabash River at U.S. Highway 40, Terre Haute, Vigo County, IN
  • Jim Grey - mobilene [at] gmail [dot] com
  • Tony Dillon - spansaver [at] hotmail [dot] com
  • Jacob P. Bernard - jacob_bernard [at] yahoo [dot] com
  • Sheldon Wiens
Post a comment here
Contact webmaster

Comments 

US 40 Wabash River Bridge
Posted January 19, 2010, by Anthony Dillon (spansaver [at] hotmail)

This bridge was a unique combination of plate girders that were used for the roadway, and Pratt deck trusses added on each side to carry the walkways. The curved lower chords of these trusses added greatly to the appearance. This was another landmark span that has disappeared forever.

US 40 Wabash River Bridge
Posted January 19, 2010, by Jim Grey (mobilene [at] gmail [dot] com)

This bridge was demolished, and then replaced by the current Dresser and Dreiser bridges in 1992.

I drove over this bridge many times in its last few years of existence and remember it looking to be in bad shape.

The first image below is of this bridge, from a postcard postmarked 1912. The second image is of the bridge that preceded it.

Uploaded file: JPEG image data, JFIF standard 1.02, baseline, precision 0, 4360x316, 57400 bytes

Uploaded file: JPEG image data, JFIF standard 1.02, baseline, precision 0, 4360x307, 41153 bytes