I went and saw this bridge in March 2019. The road off the highway was pretty muddy so I parked my car and walked the 1.5 miles to the bridge. It was well worth it. Beautiful setting. Unfortunately there is a huge power line just north that made it hard to take pictures. Deck is bad, I walked across but wouldn’t recommend it. The Green River was shallow here, maybe 2 feet deep, but I’m sure it floods way out in this spot.
During the Federal Cavalry advance north from Fort Laramie in 1876 to attack the large Indian encampment on the Bighorn, the old Army Iron Bridge across the North Platte at Fort Laramie didn't look so nice and clean as modern pictures show it. Check out the running boards (planks) and gravel that the historic old army bridge had in the photo provided by historian Starley Talbott of Wyoming at:
https://books.google.com/books?id=tcMoFX_2B_oC&pg=PA40&dq=Fo...
This was the bridge that Generals Sherman and Custer saw.
Journey in “Faithfully” used these I-80 Twin Tunnels in Green River, Wyoming for their official music video.
This is a turntable with a pony truss design. I am not sure how many such structures might survive, most turntables I know of are plate girders. It was discovered and referenced by Vern Mesler in his newsletter which I am attaching here. Photos are in his newsletter.
Possibly a transposition error
Royce
Luke,if these 2 bridges are the same why are there 2 different build dates?
Nice article here on this bridge, with old photos. https://yellowstoneinsider.com/2016/06/13/yellowstone-histor...
Check HAER online for info on Yellowstone bridges. Google "haer yellowstone" for lots of pages on yellowstone structures.
here's Fishing bridge:
https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/wy0109/
A page with general Yellowstone roads history info, the first page I found: https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/yell_roads/hrs2...
"During the summer of 1989, an Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) team, recorded the bridges and some road sections in Yellowstone National Park. Measured drawings were completed for seven bridges in the Park — Cub Creek, Crawfish, Fishing Bridge, one of the Gibbon River Bridges, the Army Bridge at the end of the Fountain Freight Road, the Army Bridge over Obsidian Creek, and the Gardner River Bridge east of Mammoth Hot Springs. These bridges and the remaining bridges built or designed 50 years ago were also photographed to HAER standards. The HAER documentation with original photographs will be sent to the Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office, Yellowstone National Park, and to the Library of Congress. A copy of the documentation will be sent to the Montana and Idaho State Historic Preservation Office."
I'll have to agree with you Dana and Kay.The article really didn't say much besides the name and what I posted earlier.
George believe this to be bridge. Not in NBI for details.....
It appears that this bridge is not original to the 1950s. I see some interesting riveted connections, which seem to indicate the bridge was rebuild from an earlier 1900s pinned through truss span. In addition, this design matches several CBQ spans from the late 1890s and early 1900s
Nice winter shots John, thanks for braving the elements!
Anyone have any history on this? There is a tunnel shown. Was this part of the RR?
Bing birds eye view shows no bridge but you can see where the bridge sat.
Yeah... I just didn't look hard enough!
Sure looks like a bridge to me, right under the red pin. The deck looks overgrown with grass.
Well, a couple of us humans looked, and a couple of us still couldn't see it.
If a human was to look at google earth or maps that human will see that the truss has been kept and is sitting on the ground just south of the new bridge. Hopefully, someone will get curious and go confirm this, but for now, my word has to stand.
A new bridge is shown in satellite imagery, was it relocated somewhere else?
This is the oldest remaining truss bridge in the state of Wyoming. It was not replaced in 2008.
Yes, please
I can take pictures of local bridges near Green River Wyoming and upload them if you are interested. How about railroad bridges? By the way, You have a great site.
Looks like it could be a king post pony truss or a roof truss bridge. Either way listed it just because it does look to have trusses.
This bridge looks to have been removed and set in a field. Not sure if it exists still or not.
My great grandmother was moving from Cleveland where she and her late husband had lived for many years. He was a civil engineer and frequently was gone from home on projects, including a railroad dock at Marquette on Lake Superior. He invented a mechanism for unloading ships. Of her journey west on a train she wrote the following about the Fort Laramie Bridge.
I deplored the conditions that nearly half my journey was enveloped in the darkness of the night; one desire was to view the old trail, where so many people had traveled thirty-five years previous to go forward to the Black Hills in search of gold, the panic of inspiration being almost equal to the old times of forty-nine when the great rush was to California for gold. Mr. S.- (Orsamus Sherwood) was at the time erecting a large bridge for the government at Fort Laramie where nearly all were obliged to cross that river, it being the Platte, and about the time the bridge was completed Colonel Crook's Army was ordered north to re-enforce Colonel Custer's, among the northern hills, but the army proper was not permitted to cross the bridge (as it was not yet accepted by the Government) but the Colonel was allowed to cross in his ambulance, he being an high officer. But their expedition was of no avail for Colonel Custer's army had been 14 massacred, almost to a man, and the news came back to Fort Laramie, very soon, that such was the case, one man escaped to bear the news of the terrible slaughter.
Its amazing what people will believe. Someone fooled a state with very few truss bridges to lose, that this historic truss was "too dilapidated to repair." http://trib.com/news/state-and-regional/dilapidated-historic...
we visited this bridge last summer. it is closed to traffic. we walked out onto the deck and found huge holes across the span... I saw no sign of rehabilitation or construction. It's a beautiful spot, with lots of birds - a nice oasis in an otherwise sparse area.
Carol: I'd definitely be interested in any information or stories about the bridge you might have.
My Great-Grandfather was the engineer on this project. Is there anyone out there that wants more information on that?
Very interesting bridge. I don't know much about Wyoming aside from its striking lack of historic truss bridges. I would hope that this early rivet-connected truss bridge with the unusual multi-function three truss line design would be considered eligible for the National Register of Historic Places and a preservation plan is in place for the bridge.
According to Google Maps and a few other sources, the local (Perhaps official?) name is "Government Bridge"
Sources:
http://www.northplatteflyfishing.com/grey_govermentbridge.ph...
Maybe it was just abandoned by the county and is privately owned. It isn't shown in the National Bridge Inventory.
Um..........im going to go out on a limb here and say that this bridge still exists. The bridge is still shown on Google Earth and there are many references to it being there on the internet. I have changed the status of the bridge to "open to traffic" unless someone can confirm the opposite. Perhaps this is like events in the show "Lost" but less dramatic except to bridgehunters like us. Maybe in 1993 the bridge fell into another dimension, yet to us it is still there.........sends shivers up my spine.
Picture taken 6-24-13
My GPS N44 50.517 W108 25.708
Near Lovell, WY
Webmaster's note: The photo that was here has been incorporated into the main site.
BNSF Railway across I-25
Picture taken 6-19-13
My GPS N42 51.403 W106 17.650
Webmaster's note: The photos that were here have been incorporated into the main site.
Picture taken 6-16-13
My GPS N41 43.480 W106 19.118
(Long drive down a rancher's road)
Webmaster's note: The photos that were here have been incorporated into the main site.
Picture taken 6-15-13 in Saratoga, WY
My GPS N41 26.936 W106 47.825
Webmaster's note: The photos that were here have been incorporated into the main site.
Although I do not have any pictures of own of the Hermosa Tunnels, here are a few from online.
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/pictures%5C83439%5CDSCF3272...
http://erikclindgren.rrpicturearchives.net/pictures%5C70466%...
This link shows the bridge photo Dave found in full size
http://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/68647689.jpg
I think I see floor beams under there, suggesting the truss still functions. However, the unusual appearance may be because the deck stringers rest on top of the floor beams. Sometimes deck stringers were originally riveted to the web of floor beams, which would lower the roadway, and make the truss look normal. Not sure if this bridge was originally like that, its all speculation with only one photo to go on.
Actually, it kind of looks like they slapped those trusses on the side of a stringer bridge. And the deck surface sits kind of high in the trusses. It looks rather strange.
I've got a guess what they did in 1989/1990, but no clue why.
Both bridges just look wrong in streetview.
Dave King added another Barnum Road Bridge, with an NBI 1990 construction date, but which is clearly a riveted truss bridge.
This bridge is another Barnum Road Bridge, with an NBI date of 1989. Could this be another relocated riveted truss?
NBI gives a 1990 date for this bridge. Obviously, this is a historic bridge, so perhaps the bridge was moved here in 1990?
Not sure if this is the original railing for this bridge, but it looks like some awesome lattice railing to me.
Yeah, that would be a tall tunnel. It was a concatenation of 16'11" and 16'9", the vertical clearance of the two bores.
It's corrected now - and I found a webcam of the east portal. I added a link in "Sources".
You should check the vertical clearance. It seems that a decimal point might have been moved. When I ran the figure through a calculator, I got a clearance of more than 305 miles!
Bridge to be removed in Spring of 2013.
http://county10.com/2013/03/04/county-transportation-set-to-...
Beautiful Pony Truss Bridge on Old US 85. Still open to traffic, but no NBI data. Any info would be appreciated.
Current google imagery shows this bridge might be about to be reused.
Funny thing is, these Redneck bridges are still far more interesting than any modern UCEB! HA!!
I call these Redneck Bridges. Find some random junk, make a bridge: Git-R-Done!
According to Wikipedia, it was listed to the National Register of Historic Places in 1985. Of course that doesn't mean it still exists, but there should be a record of it somewhere. It also calls it the ELS Bridge.
#9 on the list
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Register_of_Historic_P...
Very unusual bridge.
Hard to tell for certain if the arches are tubular or if they are composed of channels (sideways) with cover plate on top. The lack of any trussing except for a single vertical with an outrigger might indeed suggest a homemade deal of some kind.
If it is on an airport access road then I doubt it still exists, unless it was relocated elsewhere.
Ok.....just found this bridge searching through the HAER/HABS files. There is no NBI info and this bridge is not previously listed, so its totally an original find. If this bridge still exists that will be awesome, however, I cannot confirm anything using Google Earth because the image is fuzzy and street view cannot make it out. I need help. Also any more info regarding its design, construction, and date would be helpful.
I believe this bridge still exists via google earth
also noticed that there is no new listing for this county road on the NBI for a new bridge in 2000 or this years. Could it possibly be closed to all traffic and preserved in place?
I think this bridge might still exist, via the bypassed bridge just to the south west of the new bridge.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eddie_tk/5431885669/
found photos here.
Wow, a great find and great post.
This is what i call a win win, Old iron bridge bypassed by a two span steel pony. While the old span is preserved in place. Wyoming for the Win.
This bridge has been replaced with a flat crossing. It was deemed unsafe after a girder was bent by a truck excessively speeding. Lives were lost.
I don't know much about the history but I was born and lived in Sheridan County as a child. I remember crossing that bridge in Dayton on our way up to camping in the Bighorns.
I'm glad they saved it as a pedestrian bridge.
I looked at a couple of different satellite images, which all show the bridge as being extant. And I'm sure these have all been taken since the 1993 date given for it's removal.
Jason, There is a Google Earth image dated Jul 7, 2007, for this location that indicates a single lane through truss bridge at this location. Impossible to tell if it the same bridge but the dimensions certainly match.
David, where exactly is this bridge located? It appears to be where US 30 runs parallel to the UPRR, with the C&S going over both. I seem to remember something like this scene on the southwest side of Cheyenne, near the I-80/I-25 interchange.
Hi,
I'm finishing a graduate degree focused on the history of the Canyon area in Yellowstone. The bridge you have shown is called "Canyon Bridge." It spans Jay Creek as it joins the Yellowstone River. It is not part of the Artist Point road.
Chittenden Memorial Bridge spans the Yellowstone River at the start of the Artist Point Road.
Many history books on Yellowstone will corroborate this information (books by Haines, Whittlesey, etc.) as will my thesis which should be finished this fall. It will be downloadable from the Montana State University website.
Diane
