AVI - West Emma Creek Bridge
Facts
- Overview
- Abandoned three-span concrete arch bridge over West Emma Creek on Abandoned Arkansas Valley Interurban Railroad
- Location
- Halstead, Harvey County, Kansas
- Status
- Abandoned
- History
- Built 1911
- Railroads
- - Arkansas Valley Interurban Railroad (AVI)
- Interurban
- Design
- Closed-spandrel arch
- Dimensions
-
Length of largest span: 50.0 ft.
Total length: 168.0 ft.
- Approximate latitude, longitude
- +37.99942, -97.44626 (decimal degrees)
37°59'58" N, 97°26'47" W (degrees°minutes'seconds") - Approximate UTM coordinates
- 14/636419/4206889 (zone/easting/northing)
- Quadrangle map:
- Sedgwick
- Elevation
- 1390 ft. above sea level
- Inventory number
- BH 48840 (Bridgehunter.com ID)
Update Log
- November 1, 2017: New photos from John Marvig
- June 1, 2012: Updated by Clark Vance: Added category "Arkansas Valley Interurban Railroad"
- July 10, 2011: New photos from David Backlin
- July 4, 2011: Updated by David Backlin: Corrected GPS, stream name
- June 8, 2011: Added by Robert Elder
- June 3, 2011: Updated by Clark Vance: Added topo section and elevation
- June 2, 2011: Updated by David Backlin: Corrected description (closed spandrel, not open spandrel)
- June 2, 2011: Added by Sheldon Wiens
Related Bridges
- AVI - East Emma Creek Bridge (Same project)
- AVI - Sand Creek Bridge (Same project)
- AVI - Little Arkansas River Bridge (Same project)
Sources
- Sheldon Wiens
- Clark Vance - cvance [at] dogmail [dot] com
- Robert Elder - robertelder1 [at] gmail [dot] com
- David Backlin - us71 [at] cox [dot] net
- John Marvig - marvigj27 [at] gmail [dot] com
Comments
I visited this bridge on 3 July and while it appears to be mostly intact, the approaches have been removed and the surrounding area is badly overgrown. The bridge itself lies on private property behind a barbed wire fence.
This interurban railroad bridge is nearly identical to the one Sheldon discovered about a half mile to the West.
Yes, and it mentions bridges over these two creeks and over the Little Arkansas at Halstead. If these are those bridges, then they were probably built ca. 1910.
You may have something here. P. 5 of the pdf states the line ran out of Halstead to the main line of the Interurban, connecting about five miles east at a location to be named Van Arsdale. This would put the connecting line right at where the two bridges are. Van Arsdale is one mile east of the fork in Emma Creek according to county road maps.
It would be nice to find a map of the Interurban to help pin this down and perhaps find other abandoned bridges.
I just found a link that discusses an interurban railroad connecting towns in the area. Fundraising was taking place in 1909.
http://specialcollections.wichita.edu/collections/local_hist...
Thanks for the research. Sheldon, do you want to add the one to the just to the east?
Well, it won't be me. I am going to be in the middle of Texas for a while.
So which of us will be the first to make a personal visit? ;)
I'll be in Kansas City in two weeks, but don't know if I'll have time to swing over to Newton to investigate
Great job Sheldon.
GUESS WHAT? There is a nearly identical bridge about a quarter of a mile to the east!
I have heard rumors of an abandoned interurban railroad line in the region. Perhaps these two bridges could be remnants of that.
Perhaps the mystery bridge in Halstead http://bridgehunter.com/ks/harvey/bh43950/ could be from the interurban railroad as well.
AWESOME!!!!
Wow! Good find.
This page's URL is http://bridgehunter.com/ks/harvey/west-emma-creek/
If anyone is still following this, I live in Harvey County and just happened to be driving past these two bridges and my curiosity was piqued.I ended up here (Thanks for pictures and info. Someone asked about route of AVI. This blog from Harvey County Historical Museum has a map if you are interested. http://harveycountyvoices.blogspot.com/2013/06/avi-car-no-12... The locals tell me there are some other bridges from AVI not shown here. I haven't seen them yet.