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Oliver Swing Bridge

Douglas County, Wisconsin, and St. Louis County, Minnesota

Photos 

Oblique View

The Oliver Swing Bridge is an unusual two-level swing bridge. The lower level is State Highway 105, the upper level is the Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railway. This bridge allowed navigation on the St. Louis River as far as New Duluth, MN

Photo taken by Robert Thompson

BH Photo #148064

Map 

Street View 

Facts 

Overview
Double-decker swing bridge over St. Louis River on WI 105 and CN Railway
Location
Oliver, Douglas County, Wisconsin, and St. Louis County, Minnesota
Status
Open to traffic
History
Built 1916
Railroads
- Canadian National Railway (CN)
- Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range Railway (DMIR)
- Interstate Transfer Railroad Company (ITRC)
Design
Swing Warren deck truss
Dimensions
Length of largest span: 149.9 ft.
Total length: 1,904.9 ft.
Deck width: 22.6 ft.
Also called
CN - Oliver Swing Bridge
Approximate latitude, longitude
+46.65673, -92.20155   (decimal degrees)
46°39'24" N, 92°12'06" W   (degrees°minutes'seconds")
Approximate UTM coordinates
15/561089/5167328 (zone/easting/northing)
Quadrangle map:
West Duluth
Average daily traffic (as of 2010)
2,100
Inventory number
BH 43533 (Bridgehunter.com ID)
Inspection report (as of August 2012)
Overall condition: Fair
Superstructure condition rating: Satisfactory (6 out of 9)
Substructure condition rating: Satisfactory (6 out of 9)
Deck condition rating: Very Good (8 out of 9)
Sufficiency rating: 39.9 (out of 100)
View more at BridgeReports.com

Categories 

Built 1916 (660)
Built during 1910s (9,095)
Canadian National Railway (479)
Deck truss (1,576)
Double decker (60)
Douglas County, Wisconsin (29)
Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range Railway (21)
Functionally obsolete (7,621)
Have street view (24,639)
Interstate Transfer Railroad Company (2)
Minnesota (1,391)
Movable (2,798)
Navigable waterway (2,085)
Oliver, Wisconsin (1)
 Open (37,943)
Owned by railroad (10,804)
Rail-and-Road (352)
Rail-to-road (310)
Railroad (14,152)
Span length 125-175 feet (3,918)
St. Louis County, Minnesota (103)
State line crossing (774)
Swing (1,338)
Total length 1000-2500 feet (1,721)
Truss (30,584)
Warren deck truss (569)
Warren truss (6,009)
Wisconsin (1,333)

Update Log 

  • December 9, 2014: New photo from Douglas Butler
  • February 21, 2014: Updated by John Marvig: Added category "Interstate Transfer Railroad Company"
  • February 8, 2014: Updated by Luke Harden: Corrected railroad
  • August 22, 2013: New photo from Douglas Butler
  • August 27, 2012: Updated by Luke Harden: Removed category "rail-and-road"
  • August 10, 2012: Updated by John Marvig: Added category "railroad"
  • April 14, 2010: Updated by Robert Thompson: Added link to Wiki article
  • October 24, 2009: Added by J.R. Manning

Sources 

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Comments 

Oliver Swing Bridge
Posted December 26, 2015, by William Kearns (wkearns [at] columbus [dot] rr [dot] com)

In the 1950's my grandmother lived in Superior, WI, and I had an aunt, uncle, and cousin in Duluth. Occasionally we'd go over this bridge. it had a wooden deck and large steel columns came vertically thru the roadway holding up the RR tracks overhead. The last time I was in the area (about 1995), I was amazed to see this bridge still there and in use.