Ferguson Quarry Bridge
Photo
Brush Creek Bridge
View from the south. My camera battery died and I had to take this with my phone. I am waiting to hear back to try and get permission to see this up close.
Photo taken by Dave King on September 24, 2013
BH Photo #267224
Facts
- Overview
- Pratt through truss bridge over Brush Creek on Private Road?
- Location
- Marshall County, Iowa
- Status
- Abandoned
- History
- Quarry closed the old road. Bridge sits unused.
- Design
- Pratt through truss
- Dimensions
-
Length of largest span: 79.1 ft.
Total length: 80.1 ft.
Deck width: 16.1 ft.
- Also called
- Vance Avenue Bridge
- Approximate latitude, longitude
- +41.93696, -92.84974 (decimal degrees)
41°56'13" N, 92°50'59" W (degrees°minutes'seconds") - Approximate UTM coordinates
- 15/512456/4642787 (zone/easting/northing)
- Quadrangle map:
- Gilman
- Land survey
- T. 82 N., R. 17 W., Sec. 5
- Elevation
- 900 ft. above sea level
- Inventory numbers
- IA 241580 (Iowa bridge number)
BH 58125 (Bridgehunter.com ID)
Update Log
- May 8, 2021: Updated by Luke: Merged NBI, this IS the 1884 bridge over brush creek
- September 27, 2013: Updated by Dave King: Fixed status and added overview
- September 25, 2013: New photo from Dave King
- September 23, 2013: Updated by Clark Vance: Info from topo
- September 23, 2013: Updated by Luke Harden: Added type based on Bird's Eye View
- September 23, 2013: Added by Dave King
Sources
- Dave King - DKinghawkfan [at] hotmail [dot] com
- Luke
- Clark Vance - cvance [at] dogmail [dot] com
Comments
Looking at the 1980 topo, it shows a much smaller quarry and Vance Avenue running all the way south across the bridge to the highway. Obviously the county abandoned the road so they may have given up the bridge as well. My guess is the quarry kept the bridge since the creek divides the site.
From the satellite view, the bridge looks to be on a haul road through the divide between an active section of a stone quarry and a section that has already been mined out and re-claimed. This isn't the type of place that unannounced visitors are welcome. So be safe and smart and keep your wits about you,especially if tomorrow is a blasting day.
I can definitely see now it is not. Thanks guys. That shadow had me spoofed. I will try to access it if at all possible tomorrow when I'm out that way.
Take a look at this Bing view and you can see a 5 panel through truss that looks to be an older pinned Pratt. Not a bowstring unfortunately...but still looks like a very nice find!
http://www.bing.com/maps/?v=2&cp=qzpjfs77w82p&lvl=19.81&dir=...
Looking at it in Bing Bird's Eye, it's definitely NOT a bowstring.
It looks like a Pratt through truss to me.
I just found this on satellite looking around where I will be tomorrow and noticed this. Looks to be a bowstring but I can tell if pony or through. Any thoughts?
This page's URL is http://bridgehunter.com/ia/marshall/brush-creek/
Maybe try visiting the bridge on a Sunday when nobody is working? I doubt the Quarry runs much traffic over this bridge given most of their traffic would be too heavy for the bridge. Looks like they are running a small black hose or something over it based on the imagery.