TLE&W - Maumee River Bridge
Description
Once carried trains traveling from Toledo to St. Louis via Delphos, Kokomo, Frankfort, and Charleston.Facts
- Overview
- Through truss bridge over Maumee River, Wabash and Erie Canal, and US 24(as of 2009) on Toledo, Lake Erie, and Western Railroad(formerly Toledo St. Louis and Western aka Cloverleaf, Nickel Plate Road, Norfolk and Western Railway) in Grand Rapids
- Location
- Grand Rapids, Wood County, Ohio, and Lucas County, Ohio
- Status
- Closed to all traffic
- Future prospects
- I believe this bridge hasn't been used by the tourist line railroad for many years despite having equipment located in Grand Rapids where the tracks now end. Their website http://www.tlew.org/index.htm has listed construction near the bridge as the reason for it not being used, but that reason is suspect to me. They run tourist trains down from Waterville to just East of the bridge site currently. Update Dec 2011-Railroad is trying to raise funds to finish culvert and pay for tie replacement on bridge as well as inspection to reopen the line to regular trains. Currently only motorcars are allowed across. Check out their website at http://www.tlew.org/bridge.html to donate to this cause.
- History
- Built 1916, Rail line abandoned late 70's-early 80's.
- Builder
- - Toledo Bridge & Crane Co. of Toledo, Ohio
- Railroads
- - New York, Chicago, & St. Louis Railroad (NKP)
- Norfolk & Western Railway (NW)
- Toledo, Lake Erie & Western Railway (TLE&W)
- Toledo, St. Louis & Western Railroad (TStL&W)
- Design
- Warren through truss
- Dimensions
-
Total length: 900.0 ft.
- Recognition
- Eligible for the National Register of Historic Places
- Also called
- TStL&W - Maumee River Bridge
NKP - Maumee River Bridge - Approximate latitude, longitude
- +41.41430, -83.86319 (decimal degrees)
41°24'51" N, 83°51'47" W (degrees°minutes'seconds") - Approximate UTM coordinates
- 17/260702/4588706 (zone/easting/northing)
- Quadrangle map:
- Grand Rapids
- Inventory number
- BH 43089 (Bridgehunter.com ID)
Update Log
- September 19, 2021: New photos from Paul Plassman
- February 19, 2021: Updated by Nathan Holth: Added builder.
- September 16, 2013: Updated by Luke Harden: Added categories "Norfolk & Western Railway", "Toledo, Lake Erie & Western Railway"
- December 4, 2011: Updated by James Norwood: added restoration funding info and build date year.
- November 7, 2011: New Street View added by Daniel Hopkins
- November 5, 2011: New photos from Brian McKee
- April 1, 2010: Updated by Joshua Collins: added google street view
- July 30, 2009: Added by James Norwood
Related Bridges
- TLE&W - Maumee River Bridge (Old) (Predecessor)
Sources
- James Norwood
- Joshua Collins - Bigjc1979 [at] aol [dot] com
- Brian McKee - bjmckee51 [at] yahoo [dot] com
- Daniel Hopkins - chimera [at] clovermail [dot] net
- Toledo Lake Erie and Western site for this bridge - Help donate to save this bridge and get it reopened
- 1960 view along US 24 - M. McCarter Photo looking West at Bridge from old US 24 along the old Canal with Nickel Plate Road Alco unit heading to Grand Rapids.
- Historicbridges.org - by Nathan Holth
- Luke
- Nathan Holth
- Paul Plassman
Comments
Field visited this bridge last weekend. The south portal of the bridge has a piece of rail equipment parked right under the portal bracing. Further, some distance from the portal the entire area is roped off with lots of No Photography signs. Very strange behavior for a historic bridge owned by a "historical society." Certainly have no intentions of donating to a group that won't even let me take a portal view of the bridge. (And treats the bridge like a parking lot in addition). I can see why they don't want people walking on the bridge as it has not been converted for pedestrian use. But they aren't even allowing portal view photos from on the ground! Obviously, the best solution for a bridge used by a historical society would be a combination deck allowing for pedestrian use when trains are not running, which appears to be 99.9% of the time based on site conditions. Meanwhile they should at least allow photography of the bridge from the land south of the bridge.
I noticed what looked like passenger cars,freight cars,locomotives and cabooses when following what looked to me like abandoned rails both ways from this bridge.Interesting.
This bridge is still used by motorcars for the Apple butter Festival to transport people. Hopefully in the future the TLE&W will run trains across the bridge. But, the bridge is still used by motorcars a few times a month for MOW.
This page's URL is http://bridgehunter.com/oh/wood/bh43089/
I’m not sure anything runs over these rails, motorcar and all. The line is cut just at Grand Rapids Road just north of the river and it is pretty overgrown to the north and east.
There is a painted handcar (?) parked on the bridge next to a sign saying “no photography.” I suppose they mean people taking photos ON the bridge but it reads pretty harsh. Whatever. It’s public land around the south side so it’s fair game, and the airspace is unrestricted for UAV.