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Cowley Bridge

Lincoln County, Tennessee
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Photos 

Overview

The Cowley bridge is a Bowstring Arch Truss bridge built by the King Iron Bridge Co. in 1878. It is about a mile and a half north west of Kelso on the Elk River. The bridge is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Photo taken by James McCray

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Map 

Description 

The technical design is a Bowstring tubular arch, with the top chord tubular rather than being formed with channels, typical of Bowstring arches. The bottom chords are paired eyebars that are circular as they pass through a plate at the abutment where they are threated and secured by nuts on the outside.

Facts 

Overview
Bowstring through truss bridge over Elk River on West Stevens Creek Road
Location
Lincoln County, Tennessee
Status
Open to pedestrian traffic only
History
Built by the King Iron Bridge Co. in 1878 for $8,000, the only Bowstring truss bridge in the state of Tennessee. Placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.
Design
Bowstring through truss
Dimensions
Length of largest span: 171.0 ft.
Total length: 170.5 ft.
Deck width: 13.8 ft.
Vertical clearance above deck: 14.5 ft.
Recognition
Posted to the National Register of Historic Places on January 4, 1983
Also called
Kelso Bridge
Approximate latitude, longitude
+35.13806, -86.46861   (decimal degrees)
35°08'17" N, 86°28'07" W   (degrees°minutes'seconds")
Approximate UTM coordinates
16/548408/3888482 (zone/easting/northing)
Elevation
695 ft. above sea level
USGS topographic map
Mulberry
Inventory numbers
NRHP 83003046 (National Register of Historic Places reference number)
BH 36244 (Bridgehunter.com ID)

Categories 

19th Century (3,822)
Bowstring through truss (87)
Bowstring truss (211)
Built 1878 (50)
Built during 1870s (545)
Lincoln County, Tennessee (13)
NR-listed (2,354)
Open to Pedestrians (2,084)
 Owned by county (16,489)
Preserved (652)
Span length 125-175 feet (2,954)
Tennessee (770)
Through truss (9,210)
Total length 125-175 feet (4,137)
Truss (23,574)

Update Log 

  • June 16, 2011: Updated by Calvin Sneed: Updated specifications from King Iron Bridge Company records
  • June 13, 2011: Updated by Nathan Holth: Added Name and Dimensions
  • June 13, 2011: New photos from Calvin Sneed
  • July 13, 2008: Updated by James McCray
  • February 10, 2008: Added by James McCray

Sources 

  • James McCray - jamesinslocomb [at] yahoo [dot] com
  • Calvin Sneed - us43137415 [at] yahoo [dot] com
  • Nathan Holth
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Comments 

Cowley Bridge
Posted June 19, 2011, by Julie Bowers (jbowerz1 [at] gmail [dot] com)

Wow, those pictures are very telling. Rod use is totally different than any that I have looked at. Mr. King kept designing. From the Springfield with no lattice to lattice on the outrigger struts in 1878....love the craftsmen's record.

Looks like the eyebars need a little tightening up. Could be slippage at the feet, we've seen that in the Springfield Bridge.

Cowley Bridge
Posted June 17, 2011, by Matt Lohry

The Kern Bridge in Blue Earth County, Minnesota, is the longest single-span bowstring in the U.S., at 190 feet. Built in 1873 by WIBC, it's the oldest truss bridge in Minnesota.

http://www.bridgehunter.com/mn/blue-earth/bh36213/

Cowley Bridge
Posted June 17, 2011, by Nathan Holth (form3 [at] historicbridges [dot] org)

Calvin: Thanks for contributing this excellent collection of photos, particularly the detail and under-bridge photos that make much more clear the unique construction of the bridge including post-tensioned floorbeams.

And as long as the discussion here has been about long bowstring spans (I didn't realize Boner bridge was such a large span) its also worth noting that you have to go to Canada to see the longest known remaining bowstring, a Wrought Iron Bridge Company span of 225 feet http://www.historicbridges.org/truss/blackfriars/

WIBC built a number of 200+ bowstrings in America too according to a company list http://www.historicbridges.org/truss/blackfriars/notes1.jpg, but all are gone today.

Cowley Bridge
Posted June 16, 2011, by Calvin Sneed (us43137415 [at] yahoo [dot] com)

Simply had to see this beautiful structure for myself. When I visited to update the pictures and see the specifications, I measured the bridge from abutment to abutment. The exact length is 52.2107 meters, or 171.295 feet. Even the King Iron Bridge Company noted it was an unusually long single Bowstring, with the height at the apex at 19.1 feet.

Cowley Bridge
Posted June 14, 2011, by Tony Dillon (spansaver [at] hotmail [dot] com)

Boner Road Bridge main span is 161 feet bracketed with ponies that are around 47 feet each.

Cowley Bridge
Posted June 14, 2011, by Robert Elder (robertelder1 [at] gmail [dot] com)

Good information as always. The Boner Road Bridge in Warrick/Spencer County Indiana as well as the Austin Bridge in Chanute, KS have spans reported to be 160 feet.

Cowley Bridge
Posted June 14, 2011, by Nathan Holth (form3 [at] historicbridges [dot] org)

The 170 foot measurement is from the historic bridge inventory. It was actually the photos which showed a very long bridge that inspired me to look it up. 170 feet would actually make it the second longest bowstring span in the country, pushing the Freeport Bridge in Iowa with its 160 foot span into third place, where previously it was assumed to be 2nd place.

Cowley Bridge
Posted June 14, 2011, by Robert Elder (robertelder1 [at] gmail [dot] com)

If the 170' length is accurate, then this appears to be the longest single span King Iron Bowstring Bridge listed on this site.