Clairemont Avenue Railroad Bridge
Photos
Clairemont Ave Railroad Bridge
Looking from Clairemont Ave
Photo taken by John Marvig in May 2012
BH Photo #231996
Description
From south to north, a detailed description and history. Date comes from the Milwaukee Road Archives and the Milwaukee Central Library1-19' Concrete Slab (Built 1911)
1-127'9" Pin Connected Pratt Through Truss, Relocated from the Minnesota River Crossing at Chaska, Minnesota in 1911, originally built 1886 to cross the Zumbro River, at Kellogg, Minnesota.
2-142' Pin Connected Pratt Through Trusses, relocated from Des Moines River crossing at Ottumwa in 1911, originally built 1887.
1-134'6" Pin Connected Warren Through Truss, relocated from Madrid, Iowa crossing of the Des Moines River in 1911, originally built 1888
7-14' Timber Trestle spans, built 1969
Facts
- Overview
- 4 Span Through Pratt Truss Bridge on Chippewa River State Trail
- Location
- Eau Claire, Eau Claire County, Wisconsin
- Status
- Open to pedestrians
- History
- Built 1911 using relocated trusses, turned into a trail sometime in the 1990s
- Builders
- - Charles L. Strobel
- Union Bridge Co. of Buffalo, New York & Athens, Pennsylvania
- Railroad
- - Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad (MILW)
- Design
- 1 Concrete Slab Span
3 Pratt Truss Spans
1 Warren Through Truss
6 Spans Trestle - Dimensions
-
Length of largest span: 145.0 ft.
Total length: 670.0 ft.
- Also called
- Chippewa River State Trail - Chippewa River Bridge
MILW Bridge #M-188 - Approximate latitude, longitude
- +44.79731, -91.52578 (decimal degrees)
44°47'50" N, 91°31'33" W (degrees°minutes'seconds") - Approximate UTM coordinates
- 15/616600/4961491 (zone/easting/northing)
- Quadrangle map:
- Eau Claire West
- Inventory number
- BH 47521 (Bridgehunter.com ID)
Update Log
- May 6, 2016: New photos from John Marvig
- August 18, 2015: Updated by John Marvig: added several build dates and original locations
- August 10, 2012: Updated by John Marvig: Added categories "Railroad"
- May 17, 2012: Updated by Daniel Hopkins: Added category "Rail-to-trail"
- May 16, 2012: New photos from John Marvig
- May 13, 2012: Updated by Luke Harden: Removed category "Chicago, Milwaukee St. Paul and Pacific Railroad"
- January 4, 2011: Added by James McCray
Related Bridges
- Minnesota Valley State Trail - Chaska Swing Bridge (Parts reused from)
- MILW - Scandia Bridge (1888) (Parts reused from)
- MILW - Chippewa River Bridge (Predecessor)
Sources
- James McCray - jamesinslocomb [at] yahoo [dot] com
- John Marvig - marvigj27 [at] gmail [dot] com
- John Marvig Railroad Bridge Photography - John Marvig's Page Documenting This Bridge
Comments
If you look closely, you can see that the piers were likley encased. From the top of the bridge you can see the stone...
It looks as if the piers were updated as well. From the photo they appear to be concrete which would date it from sometime about or after 1900. Cut stone was the standard in the 1880's.
This page's URL is http://bridgehunter.com/wi/eau-claire/bh47521/
Turns out the bridge does indeed have an interesting history. Spans came from Chaska, Minnesota; Ottumwa, Iowa and Madrid, Iowa. All were built between 1886 and 1888 at the original locations, and relocated here in 1911.