Turtle Creek Stone Arch Bridge

Photos 

Tiffany Stone Arch Bridge

Photo taken by J.R. Manning in August 2008

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Map 

The Tiffany Stone Arch Bridge Over Turtle Creek 

I found a book in my local library that is, apparently, one of those paperback books that is self-published by a museum for sale in their gift shop. It's from the Milwaukee Public Museum, called Historic Wisconsin Buildings: Survey in Pioneer Architecture by Richard W.E. Perrin. (Second Edition, 1981, Original Pub date 1973.) Perrin has photos of three Wisconsin stone arch bridges, including the Shioc River Stone Bridge in Outagamie County between Shiocton and Shawano, and the Palm Tree Road Bridge over the Sheboygan River, near St. Cloud in Fond du Lac County.

Perrin says that when the Tiffany Stone Bridge was built, locomotives didn't weigh much more than 43 tons but since modern diesel locomotives weigh upward of 250 tons, the arches were reinforced with concrete rings.

He goes on to say that the Tiffany Stone Bridge was built in 1869, designed by a Chicago engineer named Van Mienen¹. The limestone from the area was not considered to be strong enough to hold locomotives, so the substructure stone was shipped in from Wapun and the superstructure stone came from Duck Creek in Brown County, near Green Bay.

It is a stunning structure and local residents are justifiably proud of it. It is considered to be the oldest stone arch bridge extant in the state of Wisconsin, predating the Goette Road Bridge by 8 years. A friend of mine, who is the director of the historic Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, put me on to this bridge a couple of years ago. A tip o' the hat to Jim for sending me on the hunt for this bridge.

¹ - Author's Note: Van Mienen was the chief engineer of the Chicago & Northwestern Railway Company, that had been formed by the merger of several railroad companies. Van Mienen's designs were inspired by classical arch bridges, this one, in particular, from a bridge in Campiègne, France. (The Chicago & Northwestern provided the link between Chicago and Omaha in the transcontinental railroad. The Union Pacific continued the transcontinental railroad west from Omaha. Today, the Union Pacific owns much of the old C&NW, including this bridge.)

Facts 

Overview

Stone arch bridge over Turtle Creek on Union Pacific Railroad in Town of Turtle

Location

Turtle, Rock County, Wisconsin

Status

Open to traffic

History

Built in 1869 by the C&NW; Iron pipe railing replaced a post-and-chain railing in 1935; Sometime in the 1930s a steel grid, covered with concrete, was added to reinforce the arches

Builder

- John Watson

Design

Stone arch

Dimensions

Total length: 387.0 ft.
Deck width: 16.0 ft.

Recognition

Eligible for the National Register of Historic Places

Also called

Tiffany Stone Bridge
Chicago & Northwestern Railway Bridge No. 128

Approximate latitude, longitude

+42.58080, -88.92340   (decimal degrees)
42°34'51" N, 88°55'24" W   (degrees°minutes'seconds")

Approximate UTM coordinates

16/342162/4716057 (zone/easting/northing)

USGS topographic map

Shopiere

Inventory numbers

NRHP 82005121 (National Register of Historic Places reference number)
BH 37109 (Bridgehunter.com ID)

Categories 

Update Log 

• October 23, 2012: Photo imported by Luke Harden
• August 14, 2012: Updated by Luke Harden: Corrected typos and added panoramic photograph.
• July 2, 2011: Updated by J.R. Manning: Added Length and Width Stats
• June 18, 2009: Essay added by J.R. Manning
• June 17, 2009: New photos from J.R. Manning
• August 8, 2008: Added by J.R. Manning

Sources 

• J.R. Manning - thekitchenguy [at] sbcglobal [dot] net
• HAER WI-24 - Chicago & North Western Railway Bridge No. 128, Spanning Turtle Creek, Tiffany, Rock, WI
• Luke Harden - lukemh9 [at] gmail [dot] com

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