St. Joseph Swing Bridge
Photos
Bridge must be photographed from a great distance using a zoom lens. Note the fourth span behind the trees on the extreme left.
Photo taken by Robert Elder
BH Photo #117073
Facts
- Overview
- Pennsylvania through truss swing bridge over Missouri River on the Union Pacific Railroad in St. Joseph, MO and Elwood, KS.
- Location
- Elwood, Buchanan County, Missouri, and Doniphan County, Kansas
- Status
- Open to traffic
- History
- Built 1904; Swing Span and Piers Replaced 1918/19
- Builders
- - American Bridge Co. of New York (1904 and 1918 Spans)
- Missouri Valley Bridge & Iron Co. of Leavenworth, Kansas (1918 Substructure)
- Railroads
- - Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad (CBQ)
- Herzog Contracting Corporation (HZGX)
- Union Pacific Railroad (UP)
- Design
- Pratt through truss
- Dimensions
-
Length of largest span: 470.0 ft.
Total length: 1,505.0 ft.
- Also called
- UP - St. Joseph Swing Bridge
- Approximate latitude, longitude
- +39.75359, -94.85921 (decimal degrees)
39°45'13" N, 94°51'33" W (degrees°minutes'seconds") - Approximate UTM coordinates
- 15/340724/4402061 (zone/easting/northing)
- Quadrangle map:
- Saint Joseph North
- Inventory number
- BH 36269 (Bridgehunter.com ID)
Update Log
- February 6, 2017: New Street View added by Douglas Butler
- September 6, 2016: New photos from John Marvig
- September 5, 2016: Updated by John Marvig: Added information
- December 10, 2015: New Street View added by Douglas Butler
- August 26, 2013: New photo from Douglas Butler
- April 19, 2013: New photos from Larry Dooley
- August 23, 2011: New photos from Ben Tate
- July 1, 2011: New photos from Mark Frazier
- September 7, 2010: New Street View added by Robert Elder
- March 17, 2010: Updated by Robert Elder: Adjusted GPS Coordinates
- March 9, 2010: Updated by Robert Elder: Added City
- September 21, 2009: Updated by Robert Elder: Added Movable to Categories
- September 15, 2008: New photo from Ruth Reynolds
- September 14, 2008: Changed name
- July 9, 2008: New photos from Robert Elder
- February 14, 2008: Added by Robert Elder
Related Bridges
- St. Joseph Swing Bridge (Old) (Successor)
Sources
- Robert Elder - robertelder1 [at] gmail [dot] com
- James Baughn - webmaster [at] bridgehunter [dot] com
- Wikipedia
- Ruth Reynolds - ruthmusic [at] yahoo [dot] com
- Mark Frazier - mfrazier404 [at] gmail [dot] com
- Ben Tate - benji5221 [at] yahoo [dot] com
- Larry Dooley
- Douglas Butler
- John Marvig - marvigj27 [at] gmail [dot] com
- Railway Age 1917-07-13: Vol 63 Iss 2
Comments
Wikipedia says: The first bridge on the location was built by the St. Joseph Bridge Building Company and cost $716,000 and opened on May 20, 1873, with a crossing by the St. Joseph & Denver City Railroad. The original bridge had six piers with three spans of 300 feet, one fixed span of 80 feet on the east end and a draw span of 3,654 feet makin the total span of 1,345 feet.
The bridge...fell into disrepair and the city bonds were never paid off and it was sold to the bond holders for $5,000 in a foreclosure sale in 1901. The bridge was replaced with the current swing bridge in 1906.
In the comments, there is a photo of the 1906 bridge. The Kansas approaches appear to be the same...so when was the swing span replaced, and why? Another mystery..
It definitely isn't.
This appears to be the bridge at Atchison. My grandfather has pictures as a kid next to the current bridge in 1945. It hasn't been painted for probably 40 years and it was rusty in the pics with him as a kid.
The swing span has definitely been replaced Geoff. The older one used a Pratt truss format while the newer one is a Warren. The approach spans appear to be the same, and it may also still have the original swing pier.
Is this postcard view of a previous swing span (or was it heavily modified)?
Great aerial footage of this bridge during the flooding this month:
Today UP switch engines crossed to Elwood with two cars and returned to St. Joseph with five cars.
UP man in a pick up checked bridge before train. He told us they cross on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. This was about 10am.
Bridge is still in use as of 2015 only for the Herzog corporation which has an asphalt plant on the Kansas side behind the levee. Not sure if this bridge is owned by BNSF or has been purchased by Herzog.
Bridge as seen on 10/24/2005. Image © Greg Hurt.
This bridge is not located on a mainline and receives only local traffic on occasion, hence it being swung open a majority of the time.
Reportedly, this bridge has been abandoned. As the Missouri River is a navigable stream, I would suspect that the bridge could be in danger of removal.
However, there is talk of building a rail-trail from St. Joseph, MO to Wathena, KS. Perhaps they might find a way to re-use portions of this bridge if the railroad did not want to recycle the bridge. Link: http://www.sunflowertrails.org/20091229.html
Only the swing span of the bridge is over the channel. Because of the low clearance of this span, it is hard to figure out a way that the bridge could carry pedestrians without interfering with barge traffic on the river. Of the three Pennsylvania trusses, two cross dry land on the Kansas side of the river and would be out of the way of barges.
My understanding is that the bridge is still used, but only on rare occasions. If the bridge was abandoned completely, it would probably have to be demolished immediately as the Missouri River is a navigable stream.
Not too sure this is "open to traffic"... look at satelite and street view; the swing span seems left in the open position.
This four span bridge consists of one movable (swing) span, and three, twelve panel, pin connected, Pennsylvania through trusses.
This page's URL is http://bridgehunter.com/mo/buchanan/st-joseph-rr/
From the St. Joseph Union-Observer (May 16th, 1919):
https://shsmo.newspapers.com/image/350710724/?terms=railroad...