Rating:
2 votes

Poteau River Cut Off Bridge

Le Flore County, Oklahoma
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Photos 

This bridge is beyond a gated road. It is labeled on the maps as a county road: E1470. You can see this bridge from Airport road in Poteau.

Photo taken by Gene McCluney in March 2007

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Map 

Facts 

Overview
Through truss bridge over Poteau River Cut Off on E1370, which "may" be private now.
Location
Le Flore County, Oklahoma
Status
Open to traffic
History
This bridge may be a repurposed Railroad truss from the 19th century. It has the appearance of one. The piers do not appear to be near as old as the bridge.
Design
Pin-connected, 6-panel Pratt through truss
Approximate latitude, longitude
+35.03056, -94.61413   (decimal degrees)
35°01'50" N, 94°36'51" W   (degrees°minutes'seconds")
Approximate UTM coordinates
15/352756/3877622 (zone/easting/northing)
USGS topographic map
Poteau East
Inventory number
BH 38362 (Bridgehunter.com ID)

Categories 

6-panel truss (404)
Le Flore County, Oklahoma (55)
Oklahoma (1,642)
Pedimented portal bracing (29)
Pin-connected (1,519)
Pratt through truss (3,162)
Pratt truss (5,654)
Through truss (9,201)
Truss (23,561)
Unknown status (808)

Update Log 

  • January 4, 2011: Updated by David Backlin: Added GPS Coordinates
  • January 4, 2011: Updated by Robert Elder: Added Pedimented portal bracing to categories.
  • January 18, 2010: New photo from Wayne Kizziar
  • December 12, 2008: Added by Gene McCluney

Sources 

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Comments 

Poteau River Cut Off Bridge
Posted January 4, 2011, by Mike Boehne (mikebon088 [at] yahoo [dot] com)

It's hard to tell from the pictures about how long this bridge is, but if you look at Mike Condren's Fort Smith railroad website, this span looks a lot like one of the four shorter (~160 feet) spans of the original (1885) Frisco railroad bridge, which would have been replaced around 1914 and seem to have been offered for re-use as road bridges. Some spans seem to have been moved to Morrilton, AR. The only difference I see quickly is that this bridge does not have the lattice portal bracing shown in the Frisco pictures, but that could easily have been left off if the bridge was re-erected.

Poteau River Cut Off Bridge
Posted January 18, 2010, by Robert Elder (robertelder1 [at] gmail [dot] com)

I don't know if this bridge was once a railroad bridge, but it bears a striking resemblance to this Farnsworth and Blodgett bridge in Kansas, which is probably lost.

http://khri.kansasgis.org/index.cfm?tab=details&in=073-0000-00278&startrow=21&sort=historic_name&revision=1

So, I am guessing that this bridge is probably a Farnsworth and Blodgett structure.