Salt Fork Bowstring Bridge
Description
This bridge is a nationally significant historic bridge not only as a rare example of a bowstring truss, but of one built by a company which has very few surviving bowstrings anywhere in the country.Facts
- Overview
- Bowstring through truss bridge over Salt Fork on CR 225
- Location
- Saline County, Missouri
- Status
- Closed to all traffic. Future uncertain.
- Future prospects
- Future uncertain. May be at risk for demolition. County wants to "...squeeze that liability out as quick as we can."
- History
- Built 1882 by the Missouri Valley Bridge & Iron Co., using stone abutments from an earlier 1875 bridge
- Builder
- - Missouri Valley Bridge & Iron Co. of Leavenworth, Kansas
- Design
- Bowstring through truss
- Dimensions
-
Span length: 100.0 ft.
Total length: 100.0 ft.
Deck width: 14.1 ft.
Vertical clearance above deck: 12.6 ft.
- Recognition
- Eligible for the National Register of Historic Places
- Approximate latitude, longitude
- +39.02667, -93.06000 (decimal degrees)
39°01'36" N, 93°03'36" W (degrees°minutes'seconds") - Approximate UTM coordinates
- 15/494806/4319737 (zone/easting/northing)
- Land survey
- T. 49 N., R. 20 W., Sec. 13
- USGS topographic map
- Napton
- Inventory numbers
- MO 097-351000.5 (Missouri off-system bridge number)
MONBI 22330 (Missouri bridge number on the National Bridge Inventory)
BH 22487 (Bridgehunter.com ID) - Inspection (as of 03/2010)
- Deck condition rating: Good (7 out of 9)
Superstructure condition rating: Poor (4 out of 9)
Substructure condition rating: Satisfactory (6 out of 9)
Appraisal: Structurally deficient
Sufficiency rating: 15.4 (out of 100) - Average daily traffic (as of 2010)
- 15
Update Log
- March 15, 2012: Updated by Nathan Holth: This nationally significant historic bridge is closed and may be doomed.
- April 4, 2007: Posted new photos
Sources
- Paul Boudreau - paboudreau [at] mchsi [dot] com
- Missouri Historic Bridge Inventory
- Nathan Holth
- Historicbridges.org - by Nathan Holth
Comments
The article does mention the possibility of repair though MoDot's Engineering Assistance program. Could that indicate that it will be restored for non commercial traffic?
Or does repair mean replace?
The news article fails to even mention the fact the bridge is almost 130 years old!! Doesn't something thats lasted three times as long as todays UCEB's at least deserve more respect than being labeled a "dangerous bridge?" Why don't we perform maintenance on these structures so they never get to this condition? I could really go into a rant here (this applies to other historical structures and landmarks too) but it would get too political so I'll leave it at that.
This nationally significant historic bridge is closed and may be doomed.
This is a neat little through truss Julie....but it looks to have been smashed by a tree or something big on that one truss as it is leaning quite a bit.
what a great bowstring. looks in good shape....
The bridge is walking distance from where I grew up. Lots of memories here. My sister and I visited it just last month when we were visiting my parents. We were surprised to find wild grapes growing on it!
I went over this bridge today. It's in good shape. The road was muddy and I didn't attempt to go farther north. Had to back up the way I came in.
What a unique old bridge. It's a great find. I went to check it out today and took some photos. It was the middle of an extremely hot, bright afternoon so the contrast between light and shadow made it difficult to get a good image. I'll upload a few that I took from water level to give a different perspective.
Webmaster's note: The photos that were here have been incorporated into the main site.
This page's URL is http://bridgehunter.com/mo/saline/bowstring/