UP - Moreau River Bridge
Facts
- Overview
- Deck truss bridge over Moreau River on Union Pacific Railroad
- Location
- Jefferson City, Cole County, Missouri
- Status
- Open to traffic
- History
- Built 1922
- Railroads
- - Missouri Pacific Railroad (MP; MoPac)
- Union Pacific Railroad (UP)
- Design
- Warren deck truss with all verticals
- Dimensions
-
Length of largest span: 163.0 ft.
Total length: 293.0 ft.
- Approximate latitude, longitude
- +38.55537, -92.09392 (decimal degrees)
38°33'19" N, 92°05'38" W (degrees°minutes'seconds") - Approximate UTM coordinates
- 15/578948/4267827 (zone/easting/northing)
- Quadrangle map:
- Osage City
- Inventory number
- BH 21316 (Bridgehunter.com ID)
Update Log
- August 6, 2016: New Street View added by Dana and Kay Klein
- June 25, 2016: New photos from John Marvig
- June 21, 2016: Updated by John Marvig: Added information
- June 15, 2016: Updated by John Marvig: Added Build Date
- February 27, 2013: Updated by Luke Harden: Corrected name
Sources
- Paul Boudreau - paboudreau [at] mchsi [dot] com
- Luke
- John Marvig - marvigj27 [at] gmail [dot] com
- Dana and Kay Klein
Comments
I'm very bored tonight and was remembering things of the past about some buddies I used to know. So I started searching google for some and remember hiking out at the algoa bridge area near the abandoned rock quarries and there was also a tunnel in a valley over the top of one of the fields. It was such a neat place when I was 16/17 years old. I never walked over the bridge! There was a tragic accident to a friend of mine. If I remember right he and a few friends where jumping off the bridge and he got caught on the bridge when a train was crossing it, killing him.
Here are two old, undated photos of the bridge, each of which is in very poor condition. Handwritten on the back of each print is the following: "Morrow River Bridge near Jefferson City, Mo."
Webmaster's note: The photos that were here have been incorporated into the main site.
I retired as Sheriff of Cole County in 2004 after 32 years with the Cole County Sheriff's Office. During that time, the Algoa Road Railroad Bridge was the scene of several deaths due to people trying to walk across the bridge when trains came through or jumping from the bridge into the shallow river. One jonboat hit the bridge abutment, killing a passenger.
When inmates escaped from nearby Algoa Reformatory, correctional officers were posted on the bridge with shotguns. We caught quite a few inmates through the years as they tried to cross the bridge.
It's nickname is "STINK BRIDGE" due to the fact that the Central Rendering Company had a rendering plant at the west end of the bridge. Rotting carcasses and parts of cattle, sheep, and hogs were the source of noxious odors.
During the years, we recovered many stolen items - mostly cars and vending machines. Generations of kids have used the bridge for parties and as a night-time gathering place away from the eyes of parents. The Moreau River runs into the Missouri River within a short distance of this bridge.
This page's URL is http://bridgehunter.com/mo/cole/algoa-rr/
Does anyone happen to have photos of or information about the old glue factory that was near the bridge here?