Good evening.
There is an error in your description under History:
https://bridgehunter.com/tx/bexar/150150B27995001/
"1980's" is not possessive.
Should be 1980s.
Thank you.
This is a highly unusual truss with two other identical spans known:
http://bridgehunter.com/mo/boone/little-femme-katy/
http://bridgehunter.com/ok/mayes/pryor-creek-rr/
The Missouri DNR commissioned a historical survey of the Katy Trail bridges and seems to believe that the portal and sway bracings were replaced on the Missouri bridge. However, seeing two other spans of identical design may indicate this is the original portal design.
Bridge built by Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad (MKT, Katy).
Rail abandoned and bridge donated to State of Texas for conversion to highway bridge.
Demolished - Streetview
A real waste given those balustrade railings appear to have been in great shape.
Just another example of how being National Register listed doesn't necessarily mean that a bridge is safe.
Bridge demolished in May 2021. Replacement bridge being built by Harris County Flood Control Distrct.
Neat little span... 4-panel Pratt thru's are rare! Also great to see off-structure headache bars that are placed back from the bridge. Us photographers appreciate that!
Historical records may present confusion. State Highway 6 at one time was designated as State Highway 16.
Glenn,
Thanks for the update. Do you know what the rehabilitation included? Was the truss span replaced or repaired?
Bridge rehabilitation was completed in 2020.
Recent Google imagery appears to show the bridge was replaced.
The Library of Congress collection holds a 1900 Rand McNally and Company railroad map. This map shows the railroad crossing the Sabine River as the Texas, Sabine Valley and Northwestern Railway Company (TSV&NW). The Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas states the TSV&NW was chartered on October 3, 1887 and was sold on December 27, 1904 to the Texas and Gulf Railway Company. Therefore if the bridge was completed in 1904 the TSV&NM was most likely the builder.
On April 25, 2021 a Longview News-Journal article by Jo Lee Ferguson reported that BNSF expects to complete replacement of the railroad bridge and trestle in 2022. According to the News-Journal little is known about the bridge’s history, except that it was constructed in 1904 by one of the predecessors of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway. The News-Journal article quoted Ben Wilemon of BNSF to say “The bridges [and trestles] over the Sabine River are part of our heavy bridge program, which addresses the replacement of larger bridges on the BNSF network. Mr. Wilemon also stated “The new bridges (will) feature modern designs that allow our customers the flexibility to ship heavy axle loads, something which the previous designs from 1904 prevented.”
I visited this bridge last month. The street view on this page correctly shows that the remnants are visible from the highway. Although all that remains of the deck at this point is a few bits of wood hanging loosely over Choctaw Creek from wires, the bridge LOOKS like you could just slap some new pieces of timber between the cables and have a working bridge again. On the other hand, I'm no structural engineer, and that's probably a terrible idea. Like several of the bridges I saw on this trip, though, it appears as though it could be repaired. There's also probably no real point to doing so given that it doesn't really go anywhere. . . .
One of the largest K-truss bridges in the country has been reduced to scrap metal as OKDOT continues on its path to destroy every surviving K-truss bridge in the state.
https://www.kxii.com/2021/04/07/old-highway-78-demolished-ne...
There is no way that Joseph Strauss design this swing bridge, he did had a plan to design some swing bridges but instead direct and rack non counterweight rope lift bridges.
John
You are kidding me right?
Bridge designer: Joseph Strauss, chief engineer of the Golden Gate Bridge.
Hello. Do you have any more photos or videos of this bridge? Thanks.
This appears to be a late 1890s standard MKT truss from A&P Roberts Co/Pencoyd Iron Works, similar to this one
Based on the 1958 imagery the old bridge was used for the South Bound I-35 US-77 when the highway was widened to 4 lanes. It was replaced sometime between 1958 and 1981 based on what I can find on that site and the replacement bridge looked pretty new on the 1981 Aerial Image.
I will update the location to the SB lanes.
This is a Warren truss because the diagonal members form a repeating "W" shape. Technically, it could be called a polygonal Warren because the top chord has multiple slopes instead of being parallel to the lower chord. A Parker truss also has the polygonal top chord, but its diagonals would be sloping downward from the top chord toward the center of the span rather than in a continuous W shape.
Is this bridge a Warren through truss as stated above? I have no bridge identification experience but to me it looks more like a Parker truss type. Can the reason why this is a Warren truss be explained to me. Thank you!
That's a pretty steep grade on that one. Wow!
This bridge by the look of the photos looks well enough to be restored as a pedestrian bridge. The climate out in this area is much more drier than the eastern portions of Texas so there should be less rust damage.
There are photos of this bridge from the Brazoria County Historical Museum online. One of the photos described the bridge had collapsed due to erosion.
Here's a picture of this bridge. Design was a Camelback truss and a Pratt Truss.
Old bridge is not easily visible on when driving by due to the traffic and raised level of the newer bridge.
Here is the current bridge.
Here is what's left of the old bridge. Only the north abutment remains. The other side was used as a boat ramp.
Says on the bridge that it was possibly built in 1889.
That one appears to have been further South.
Is this the one at FM 521 near the Mims Community?
I grew up in the area in the 1960s. It was the same long weekend wait times back then. As a young kid, the ferry boat ride was a big thrill, so sometimes we'd ride over just to turn around and ride back.
Be warned. This ferry is a serious tourist draw. Wait times in-season especially on the weekends especially from the island to Bolivar peninsula can be up in the range of 2+ hours (with five ferry boats running.). Off season weekends can have wait times well over an hour.
There is a program where locals can buy a fast lane pass (it goes both ways) and real medical emergencies can skip ahead from the Bolivar side to the island.
Your GPS may send you on shortcuts, but cutting is against the law on Ferry Boulevard (all the way to Seawall Boulevard.) Left turns toward the ferry are not allowed where there is a line. The police ACTIVELY and regularly patrol and enforce the line. Generally they just throw you out of line and send you back to the west end of the line, but at times there are fines and even arrests made. The westbound line is not as bad, but there is generally at least one Sherriff's deputy over there.
The wooden bridge section going over the swamp on the Louisiana side was burned by a fire in 1973. There used to be a East Orange, LA with a few businesses but are no longer approachable with the bridge torn down and the wooden bridge burned. All this is posted on texasfreeway.com
A replacement bridge is being built to replace the current swing bridge. It is very strange because you have to loop into it because the span has to be shortened and they had to eliminate the normal straight approaches.
I don't think this thing is this old. I REMEMBER ABSOLUTELY driving on the old Texas Viaduct. This ramp is part of the replacement project. The old Texas Viaduct was paved with wooden Cobble (settes...blocks) it was terrible.
I want to think it was after my wife and I moved to Bowie County in the eighties. I am absolutely sure I was not driving in Texarkana in 1975. Pretty much the pasture was my limit in 1975. I was 14 then.
I cannot imagine my parents tolerating me driving on it as bad as it was. That puts it into the early eighties. It MIGHT have been before we moved to the area. My wife and I did go to Texarkana a few times before we moved there...
I think Houston's Metro transit bought the rail line and its property for future use as commuter rail but did nothing with it.
Location on the map I think is wrong, the pic lists the railroad bridge as the north of both spans which means the older span is located on the southern end at near Liberty St. You can see the downtown photo on this at the left end.
There is another old 35 bridge near Angleton y'all need to put down. The old 35 bridge over Oyster Creek outside Angleton. Go down Sebesta Rd (Co. Rd 609), which is old 35 and at the end walk further to the creek where you see wooden posts remaining from the old bridge. It might have been replaced the same time as the East Columbia Bridge.
I think as late as 1958, I am not sure that this bridge also took hwy traffic as well as the old 288.
Residents were once promised that the toll would be temporary when it was built when it was paid off but that never happened. In the early 2000's someone crashed through the toll booth and tolls were waived for a couple of years until a new booth was built.
They are building a new bridge along side this one. I don't know if the old one will remain.
This bridge remained after the construction of I-10 into sometime in the 70's. It was the old hwy TX-73 bridge which was the old hwy before I-10.
This now basically the bridge to nowhere. It is what is left of Old US 290 and only goes a mile further to dead-end after going under I-10.
Do the infamous canal bridge near the intersection of FM523 and TX332 in Oyster Creek. Many locals know about that bridge because several people missed the bridge overnight and went missing into the canal, when they were discovered at the bottom sometime in the early 1980's, some after years being missing. A new bridge had to be built to straighten out the curve to prevent further accidents.
This bridge was torn down when I was still wearing diapers but my family remembers it well. I did once talk to the Freeport city engineer years ago and he told me the bridge had to be torn down due to the salt water rusting the deck and the river currents eating away the silt at the bottom of the posts exposing more of the post foundation. Do the bridge at FM2004. I lived nearby as a kid and saw it being built around 1987. I have been on this bridge as a baby but I was too young to remember it.
Historic Aerials is only marginally helpful for this location...the earliest aerial available is only from 1982. There are topographic maps from 1953 and 1969 that indicate a bridge, though I...think? those maps can be outdated by a given number of years. The next map after that is 1980, which shows it gone.
According to historical photos I've seen this bridge was built about 1912 as a one-lane wagon bridge and according to a map I saw I think it was torn down about 1957 or 1958. I might be wrong because there might be another bridge built here between this time because I saw a 1940 picture of the bridge and looked wider and more modern.
Before this bridge closed, I was starting to get scared of crossing this bridge. It was rusting and a piece of the deck was starting to dip. Semi-trucks really took a toll on this bridge and you would hear a loud clank under the bridge when they crossed.
The location of this bridge on the map is wrong. It is nearby at Hwy 523 and you can see where it was bypassed. It is where Bastrop Beach Rd. hits the Bayou. Hwy 2004 was not built till 1962.
Small pieces of this bridge were put in the Freeport Historical Museum.
Here's one from the Library of Congress from 1926...I don't know how helpful this would be though.
https://www.loc.gov/resource/g4031p.ct001207/?r=-0.577,-0.18...
Nearest railroad mainline is shown as RI on topos available via HistoricAerials. Map screencap on the entry shows that the FW&D and Frisco routes had trackage rights.
Looking through the photos of the bridge, the seventh photo is a map from 1957 showing that the two bridges connected and that they were both for the railroad. I think it was T&P Railroad though, not RI.
Thank you! I was able to zoom in and find it and now will check it out on Historicaerials.com with the coordinates you so kindly provided!
I...think? Melinda is referring to this location:
32.796027, -97.122374
Here's where it gets a bit tricky. If you turn on satellite on the embedded map, on this page, and start zooming in, it will very quickly give you super-clear imagery. Follow along the river north and east, and you will come to a spot where it clearly shows two large structures, one at each side of the river.
You can't do this with the map in a separate tab, however - for whatever reason, the map won't refresh with "updated" imagery in a separate tab, it'll only use the "regular" Google satellite imagery. (I wish I knew why.)
I punched those coordinates into Historic Aerials, and I...think? There's something still there crossing the river in 1956 and 1957. It also looks like it was removed not too long after that (even by 1963, it appears gone). I can't be completely sure, however, because it keeps giving me images where "HISTORICAERIALS.COM" crosses right over the exact spot that we need to see. -_-
In any case, I believe that is what Melinda is referring to with: "I am now trying to find out what bridge is in River Legacy Park that only has the concrete pillars left and is clearly visible from the paved walking path along the West Fork of the Trinity River."
I don't know if it yet has an entry here, though.
Art:
"The bridge where the fatal accident involving Arlington High School students in 1961 was burned and was never replaced and is now a calvert off of what is now Greenbelt."
That would be this bridge.
Art:
Here's the Trammel Davis bridge (obviously).
And Arlington is also in Tarrant County, so ostensibly she's referring to something there.
From what I understand as of October 2020. The Fort Griffin bridge is no longer functional, and has not been for some time. Although it is on a county road, travel there is discouraged for reasons explained below.
I inquired about the bridge at the Fort Griffin Historic Site visitors center, and I quote; "although the road is county road, the bridge is not passable, this would force you to turn around on private land." Apparently the landowner has seen some issues with trespassing and vandalism at the Fort Griffin town site, which is apparently on private land just before the bridge.
I drove to the area, and can confirm the road does not appear maintained beyond the residence entrance on the road prior to the bridge. Note: I did not leave the county road.
I did not continue to the bridge site or even the town site, though I could clearly see the buildings. Out of respect for the landowner I did not pursue visiting the bridge.
This bridge was widened from it's original design to accommodate the widening of US81/US79 that was routed through here. There is another bridge that pre-dates this one, but it was used only to cross the creek. It appears to still be there. There's quite a few of these concrete bridges sitting abandoned throughout Williamson County that once was used for what was then SH 2.
The Paddock Viaduct was the first concrete arch bridge in the United States to employ self-supporting reinforcing steel.
October 7th, 1937, in the Coleman County Chronicle newspaper, a celebration was held and they stated the bridge was reconstructed using a 200 yard span of the old Milburn Bridge which was also washed away during the flood of 1936.
Here's a link, thought it may be of interest to some of you. The pilings are left on the old Milburn bridge but that's it, and it's on private property and generally inaccessible.
I can link to it on Google Maps if there's any interest.
https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth732580/m1/5/z...
Here is another image from Mid July 2020. I've used the Milky Way to silhouette the Waldrip Bridge. After snapping the picture and looking at the screen of my DSLR camera, I knew I was in for a treat. That was just a magical night under the stars and a Texas Sky.
For the photographers out there: 20mm f/1.8 lens, 20.0 s. ISO 1600.
My IG account is Matt4jpeg.
Tony,
Did Vincennes have anything to do with Missouri Valley Bridge and Iron Works? Because the marker text from THC reported that Hess and Skinner were agents for what they called the "Missouri Bridge Company"
https://historicbridges.org/bridges/browser/?bridgebrowser=t...
Very distinctive plaque that matches those of the Vincennes Bridge Company. I would bet a few bucks that VBC was subcontracted to fabricate the trusses.
Located this bridge yesterday and its in really bad shape, attached are some photos
Has been replace with new concrete bridge
This just seems to be this: http://bridgehunter.com/oh/gallia/adamsville/ but with just one girder instead of two
> Also what the heck am I looking at, this bridge confuses me.
There aren't a lot of photos, but what I'm seeing is sort of a single web "solid truss". Yes, "solid" and "truss" are mutually exclusive, but maybe it will help the thought process.
There are two functions.
First is the fins and the center beam make a rigid, load bearing span across space. So those fins are above the beam, so they are under compression - which is a good use for concrete. They are doing pretty much the same thing that a pony or through truss's webs are doing, except these are solid.
The second function is the side-to-side cantilevers that support the deck and transfer the load onto the center beam. This is show by the under-the-deck photos.
Does this help? Or am I answering the wrong question?
As it is asymmetrical, with the demolition of the Nine Span Bridge should this be listed as last of it's kind? Being the last notable Asymmetric bridge in the country.
Also what the heck am I looking at, this bridge confuses me.
This bridgde has been replaced by a concrete bridge and the old bridge removed. Verified 9/11/20
This bridge has been replaced by a concrete bridge and the old one removed. Verified 9/11/20
Has a Chicago Bridge Company plaque.
Your date of construction is wrong. It was either 1917 or 1918. Now I'm at home so I'm not at the bridge right now, but the year is very clearly written in the concrete. I just don't remember if it said 1917 or 1918.
In case the Person is interested, I would like to nominate this pic for the Bridgehunter's Awards for 2020. :-) JS
Awesome! That one deserves to be in the running for Jason's bridge photo award.
The stars at night are big and bright ...
Awesome! That one deserves to be in the running for Jason's bridge photo award.
The stars at night are big and bright ...
Neat pic!
I took this image in the middle of July, 2020. God bless a Texas sky.
Very fascinating bridge. Thanks for sharing.
Henry
The bridge has been converted to a one lane bridge with alternating directional lights
This photo was taken on March 20, 2014 during the rehabilitation.
Also, UP intends to replace this bridge.
Center truss span matches this AmBridge built Harriman Lines Common Standard design.
Was this bridge really built by Phoenix, or is the referenced record referring to a previous bridge at this location?
YouTube video taken 7/23/2020
This bridge was originally constructed one-half mile south of the bridge on Willow Springs Road. It was located on the old Fayetteville to Industry road and completed in December 1915. However, it was bypassed when State Highway 159 was laid out between the two bridges in the 1920s. The bridge was moved to this site about 1929. The Fayette Heritage Museum and Archives in La Grange has several photographs showing the original approaches being constructed in 1915.
The bridge was completed on August 6, 1885, soon followed by an all-day picnic celebration. The site was chosen by a bridge engineer, causing the old Fayetteville to Industry road to be diverted to access the new bridge that was one-half mile north of the old crossing. The Fayette Heritage Museum and Archives in La Grange is hoping to find early photographs of this bridge.
Nathan,
I like it. Does anyone have pictures of the other side to see what the other plaque says and if the remains of the ponies are still there?
Regards,
Art S.
1912 according to the date punched into the portal plate.
How old is it?
I found historical photos that show this bridge used to have a very cool pony truss approach system.
Hi!
The bridge is no longer National Register eigible with the reconstruction that it has undergone... I was one of the Consulting Parties on the project.... CK
Replaced by bridge
Fully intact in 1995 aerial view. Appears to be partially dismantled in 2004 view, and completely gone by 2008.
The alignment was the Santa Fe (ATSF) Hamlin Sub, still active as late as 1989, but haven't found anything else about it.
I added this bridge because so many people on this website have been good at digging up historical photos and info about long lost bridges. This bridge was in the middle of nowhere so it might be a challenge. But it was a large bridge over a major river. I am sure it was a railroad bridge because we know the previous 1901 highway bridge in this area was closer to the existing highway bridges.
Replaced in the late 80s or early 90s.