Columbia Bridge

Reply to Anthony:

This bridge did indeed collapse before being sold for scrap. That makes two bridge collapses over this river (the other in Missouri where it is known as the Osage River) in the last year.

So.....did it actually collapse.....or was it just scrapped out while still standing?....would be curious to know for sure.

I have gotten the official word that this bridge was sold for scrap. It was not considered eligible for the NRHP and it is gone. There will be no re-assembling of this bridge.

I drove past this bridge yesterday. There is no sign of any scrap metal piled near the road. Upon visitation, it seems that this bridge has disappeared without a trace.

I have looked through the agendas and minutes of the Franklin County Commission meetings for 2010. So far, I have found nothing on the collapse or removal of this bridge. There is always a possiblility that the bridge may have been owned privately (ie, completely vacated by the county), so the commission may have had little or no involvement.

The Marais des Cygnes River is not considered a navigable stream but the water itself is in the public domain. Thus, if the bridge was physically in the water, I am not certain which jurisdiction would be responsible for removal.

I have e-mailed my contacts in Kansas concerning this bridge. I have also done several Google searches to find any newspaper reports or other information concerning the collapse of this bridge. I would think that a 130 year old bridge falling down would make at least a few papers.

Reply to Nathan and Anthony, et al:

I would have been glad to have seen this bridge restored anywhere. Given that the Marais des Cygnes has a terrible history for flooding, moving the bridge would not have been a bad idea.

In 2007 this bridge was besieged by the same flood that submerged both the Creamery Bridge and the Asylum Bridge in Osawatomie. I do not recall any major floods on the MDC River this summer, and I am almost certain that this bridge was still standing as of July 4th.

Now, a few unanswered questions.

1. What was done with the remains of the bridge? Is there any chance that the parts of the bridge could still be in a county scrapyard? If so, it might actually be possible to do some reassembly.

2. Is the pony truss at the East end still standing?

3. Would any parties be interested in reassembling this bridge, if (and that is a big if), any salvageable parts remain? I do know that rail-trails are being constructed in the region.

I will be e-mailing a couple contacts in Kansas today to see if there might still be some hope.

EPIC FAIL. If whoever owned this bridge was aware of the work we do in Michigan, they would have dragged the parts from the river and shipped to Michigan for total restoration.

Sad news indeed.....am curious as to what happened. The caissons (or lally columns) appear to be good and straight in Joshua's photos. Am guessing it might have been the result of a flood.

Despite the loss of this significant bridge, the update is appreciated. I have been trying to find newspaper articles that discuss its demise. I guess that the loss of an 1880 Columbia Bridge Works span just does not make for a major news story...

Terrible news. I hope that at least a few parts could be salvaged. This bridge is a major loss.

Hi,

I live about a half a mile from this bridge and I thought I would let everyone know that this bridge is no longer standing, it fell into the river a few months ago and was removed shortly after.

I had looked at those floor beams. I don't think I have ever seen others like them. Not in person, nor on this website.

Here is a pic of the floor beam system that Nathan was speaking of........very unique indeed.

Thanks Nathan, that was very informative. This bridge is so difficult to study or document properly as you can not walk on it (at least I am not going to attempt it), and you can not get too close to the main or pony spans.

If the bridge has cast iron, wrought iron, and steel components (mainly on the stringer approach, most likely) that would make it a particularly interesting study.

The example Anthony shows below is in Dayton, Ohio. I have documented the bridge, albeit very briefly so I may have missed some details. However, that particular bridge does have additional cast iron elements on it, particularly the brackets for the tension rods which are all part of the floorbeam assembly. There also appear to be cast iron guides between the deck and the bottom chord connections. The saddles for the hangers that are either attached to (or actually are) the pins for the bottom chord connections are also cast iron. One thing I forgot to inspect: I should have looked more closely at the spacers for the verticals... might those be cast iron as well, or are those simple short cuts from a rolled beam?

From these photos, I have no idea if any of this is on the Kansas bridge, except that the floorbeam detail is not present. But these are some things you would want to look for.

Anthony:

Thanks for the information concerning the history of the Columbia Bridge Works. Although I have looked at the category on Bridgehunter, this is the only CBW span that I have personally visited - albeit from a distance. I noticed that on the 1887 span in Ohio, the company was using built-up members instead of rolled memebers. This would have been a change from the earlier CBW standards.

Several years ago, the Old Depot Museum in Ottawa (county seat) had some pamphlets which mentioned this bridge. Because the museum is the centerpiece of the Franklin County Historical Society, it would be nice if the open letter plaques, might be in storage there, though this is pure hope. Hopefully any finials that may have been on the bridge are in storage as well.

Either the museum or the courthouse might have some records concerning this brige. Erecting a bridge across the Marais des Cygnes River must have been a great accomplishment for Peoria/Imes, so hopefully somebody generated some sort of record.

Do you think that this bridge might have other cast-iron elements other than the portal bracing? Cast iron is so rare on bridges, that this would undoubtedly add to the significance of this bridge.

WOW!

Was just looking at Joshua Collins' new pics of this amazing span. It features the older Columbia Bridge Works designed portals with mostly cast elements. Sometime shortly after D.H. Morrisons' death in 1885 the portal design was simplified along with major design changes overall. The open letter builders plaque remained the same even after the company changed to the Columbia Bridge Company. Unfortunately, prosperity dissipated and the firm vanished sometime around 1890.

The open letter plaques don't appear to be extant on this span, but the portal decoration is intact.

The top picture below is from an 1881 bridge and the bottom one from an 1887 span.

KSHS does have a page for this bridge, although there is no photograph. The bridge was not considered to be NRHP eligible at the time of the survey, which was likely conducted in the 1980s.

http://khri.kansasgis.org/index.cfm?tab=details&in=059-0000-00015&startrow=21&sort=historic_name&revision=1

Glad to see some photographs of the portals. This is a fine bridge, even in its current derelict condition.

Sounds good, Jacob. If anybody knows the land owner and could obtain good portal pictures, that would be great. I hope that the open-letter plaques and portal decorations commonly used by the Columbia Bridge Works are still intact. I would like to take more photos of this bridge, but I live out of state now.

I'm going to have to ride over there to look at it again because I live only 3 miles from that bridge and the bridge is really in Imes not Peoria

Thanks for the information, Anthony.

I have not been able to closely inspect this bridge to check for finials, plaques and other features associated with the Columbia Bridge Works. I would need to find out who owns the land and get permission.

As of this date, this bridge is the only CBW bridge west of the Mississippi that is listed on Bridgehunter. This one definitely needs to be preserved.

Robert......It's a safe bet that if it's a Columbia Bridge Works span, that it is wrought iron.

I have added "wrought iron" to categories for this bridge considering the construction date of 1880. This seems appropriate unless proven otherwise.

This abandoned bridge is located immediately southeast of Peoria, Kansas. Although it is not accessible, it can be viewed and photographed from the new bridge.