M&StL - Skunk River Bridge

The first bridge on this site was built by the Central Iowa Railway in 1882. This line was an ancestor of the Iowa Central, which was absorbed by the M&STL. All of these lines came into Coppock by a bridge across Crooked Creek, geographic coordinates 41.162778,-91.716111. I don't know the history of either bridge in any more detail, but: The Central Iowa Railway and the Burlington and Western both built through Coppock, Iowa in 1882, and fought serious battles over the alignment of their Skunk River bridges, with crews from each line tearing out work done by the other. In the end, they built parallel spans. I believe that State Highway 78 roughly follows the alignment of the B&W through Coppock. The CB&Q took over the B&W in 1903 and abandoned the line in 1934. Links to my sources for this discussion are in the new Wikipedia page for the Burlington and Western Railway. The lengths of the two Skunk River bridges built by the B&W are in their annual reports -- this being the longest bridge on their line, the early reports give figures like number of iron bridges, average length of iron bridges, and longest iron bridge.