John Cross

Glad they left it intact with the deck. It looks like an entirely different area than a few years back. They saved 10s if not hundreds of thousands and preserved history in place. Good Job!

Bridgehunters that want to visit this bridge: I suggest you approach from the NNW. Plemons Road/Ranch 2277 off TX 207/152/136 will get a better view from the plateau at that approach.

The Rock Island Railroad is defunct. Currently this line is operated by Arkansas & Oklahoma/KCS

My girlfriend and I "toured" this bridge June 25th 2009. It is a great bridge, sad it was allowed to deteriorate. I have some suggestions for any that plan to visit this bridge. First come in from the north, then you have a choice to come in via "south" Burn Rd. CR479, or "north" Burn Rd. CR479. I did both in a jeep 4wd and I suggest you come in via the northern route. Beth and I came in from southern Burn Road, near I-30, we didn't get stuck, but covered the jeep in mud. The northern route is higher and drier. Just a tip. If you are a mudder do the southern Burn Road (after a rain). Great Bridge, lally columns and "partial" wood deck no name/date plates. Good hunting!

1st two photos are of the collapsed south approach, the 3rd photos is from the northern approach looking SW.

My DeLorme Mapping shows this as Blackjack Creek, not Horsepen Creek.

As I said to my bridge buddy Gene, this bridge did not collapse, it was sabotaged. Destroyed by whatever entity that put the ignorant "piers" under it. Bridges strength and load bearing capacity is with the load downward, if they were supposed to be logjam dams the trusses would be sideways. When they "strengthened" this bridge they doomed it. A beaver has better sense. Too bad!

can't edit again, but here are the coordinates for the abandon Birch Creek (Osage/Midland Valley) Railroad

Bridge.

N36.53718, W96.15561

Good job Anon, I shouldn't have missed a nameplate.

Sorry, but have to say it- speaking of nimrods- the only reason this happened is because someone was too lazy or too stupid to go around. You could put a titanium deck on it, increasing the weight to load ratio- but still couldn't land a 747 on it. There is obviously no way they are going to do serious maintenance or upgrades to this or thousands of other bridges. Weight limits must be observed and minimal maintenance must be applied. I feel better now!

I think if this bridge had running boards it would increase the load bearing significantly for low relative cost. NOT 34000 lbs worth thought. I posted this comment on the news story page, I'm mad:

I hope the SOB driving that truck was fined, or is forced to pay for the repairs. Dream-on. In our bridgehunting Gene McCluney and I have seen where fires were built on bridges (and bridges destroyed by such fires), have seen where people have "burned" off their tires and impacted the bridge and where just careless drivers have collided with the structures due to poor driving skills or intoxication. Like this we have seen and read of bridges damaged or destroyed by people unwilling to take their overweight loads an alternate route. I guess you can tell it steams me. Public property and living museums damaged or destroyed by the careless or stupid. The Wallace Bridge is a great bridge site, I hope repairs are made.

I hope the SOB driving that truck was fined, or is forced to pay for the repairs. Dream-on. In our bridgehunting Gene McCluney and I have seen where fires were built on bridges (and bridges destroyed by such fires), have seen where people have "burned" off their tires and impacted the bridge and where just careless drivers have collided with the structures due to poor driving skills or intoxication. Like this we have seen and read of bridges damaged or destroyed by people unwilling to take their overweight loads an alternate route. I guess you can tell it steams me. Public property and living museums damaged or destroyed by the careless or stupid. The Wallace Bridge is a great bridge site, I hope repairs are made.

Update "from the west side". When Randall, Fred, Gene and I visited Smiley Bayou in 2007, Gene and I knew our photos were not what we wanted and as we say "we'll have to come back". So we finally did. It was a beautiful day and as we shot a number of photos of other bridges in the am I worried the water level and swampiness would be too much to get there. We decided our first attempt would be from the south coming in from AR 7 on (my Delorme listing) CR302 to CR55 and turning north on CR54. We made it on CR54 less than 4000 feet before the road becomes passible only on foot or four wheeler. The trail opens back up to what was the road, and it is blocked a number of times by fallen trees and overgrowth- but is relatively clear considering how long we belive it has been abandon. We hiked about 1/2 mile north to find the bridge.My maps don't show it, but I believe that CR97 came directly in from the West to the bridge site. It now stops about 1/2 mile short. I assume as we have seen on many bridges- the reason for abandonment was not bridge insufficiency, but that the approach roads were too low and or swampy that they could not be maintained adequately. Gene guesses and I think he may be right that the bridge was probably abandon in or around the 1960s. If anyone has further facts on the bridge, roads and settlement- I would love to hear them.

As I mentioned in the main description, I love to find older bridges or bridge remnants and this location was a goldmine. Note in the last photo the current and in use line of the Union Pacific Railroad. Now look at the piers and lally columns very close to the current N4140 1930 Hickory Creek Through Truss. These remnants were within 30 to 80 feet of the current alignment of N4140. Note there are two sets almost on top of each other but obviously from different times and alignments. The photos are in order from the south toward the north, but all on the south side of the creek.

Can anyone fill in the gaps? Was one the former railroad alignment? Both road? Let me know if you have information or just thoughts.

Webmaster's note: The photos that were here have been incorporated into the main site.

My pictures are poor, but it was late in the day (and we were about to get stuck). I wanted to show the adjacent wing wall pier to what was likely the bridge prior to this. My maps show this crossing as the upper Oologah Lake/Big Creek on N4190.

This is the largest mixed span bedstead bridge that Gene my bridge buddy and I "have" photographed (sort of). This bridge celebrated it's 100th birthday by being torn down. We are from Arkansas where we have found no standing bedsteads and in Oklahoma we have photographed well more than a half dozen. Three of which on this day (in Okmulgee Co.)were closed or like this one, in the process of removal and total destruction.

Webmaster's note: The photos that were here have been incorporated into the main site.

Some interesting notes. It would be nice to hear from Wayne and Fred on this. First you can note in Wayne's photos (see underneath) the monolithic pier/abutment. This appears to my untrained eye as a modern touch. Second as Fred mentioned rivets and bolts (generally a sign of repair or relocation). This bridge was well maintained as of 5/25/2007 i.e. good wood and abutment work. Was this bridge moved in/relocated? It appears original in it's boiler plate type piers.

This seemed very curious to me. Also if you drove a little further in to the West you could see a double tree line, lining and old roadway. I was going to jeep down it, but it was fenced or had a "gap" across it.

photo did not want to upload