Rating:
7 votes

Wabash - Village Creek Bridge

Wapello County, Iowa

Photos 

Wabash Railroad Bridge #2216

This was originally "Span D" of Wabash Bridge #499, the four-span bridge over the Grand River west of Brunswick, Missouri. According to the Wabash 1902 B&B book, this span was originally erected over the Grand River in 1885.

Wabash Railroad plan

License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike (CC BY-SA)

Enlarge

BH Photo #306105

Map 

Description 

All lengths approximate

Facts 

Overview
Whipple through truss bridge over Village Creek on private road (abandoned N&W, ex-Wasbash)
Location
Wapello County, Iowa
Status
Converted to four-wheeler/pedestrian usage by private owner
History
Built 1885 in Missouri; Erected here 1916; Bridge abandoned 1982; Sold to local land owner & converted ??
Railroads
- Norfolk & Western Railway (NW)
- Wabash Railroad (WAB)
Design
1 - 150' Pinned Whipple through truss on timber piles
Wooden pile trestle and I-beam approaches
Dimensions
Length of largest span: 150.0 ft.
Total length: 265.0 ft.
Deck width: 16.8 ft.
Vertical clearance above deck: 26.0 ft.
Also called
Wabash Railroad Bridge #2216
N&W - Village Creek Bridge
Approximate latitude, longitude
+40.95960, -92.39305   (decimal degrees)
40°57'35" N, 92°23'35" W   (degrees°minutes'seconds")
Approximate UTM coordinates
15/551076/4534449 (zone/easting/northing)
Quadrangle map:
Ottumwa South
Inventory number
BH 55815 (Bridgehunter.com ID)

Categories 

Beam (17,114)
Built 1916 (732)
Built during 1910s (10,078)
Iowa (6,818)
Norfolk & Western Railway (651)
Open (41,206)
Owned privately (1,966)
Preserved (1,236)
Railroad (16,666)
 Span length 125-175 feet (4,498)
Steel stringer (6,808)
Through truss (17,893)
Timber stringer (4,392)
Total length 250-500 feet (5,611)
Truss (36,804)
Wabash Railroad (594)
Wapello County, Iowa (111)
Whipple truss (485)

Update Log 

  • November 23, 2014: Updated by Dylan VanAntwerp: Edited/Added info
  • October 25, 2014: Updated by James Holzmeier: Updated bridge dimensions and added line drawing image
  • March 17, 2013: Updated by Dylan VanAntwerp: Added categories "Wabash Railroad", "railroad", "Norfolk & Western Railway"

Related Bridges 

Sources 

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Comments 

Wabash - Village Creek Bridge
Posted October 14, 2015, by Tim Courtney (timothycourtney [at] gmail [dot] com)

I hiked back in there as a youth right after the tracks were torn out. Never thought to bring a camera. Thanks for posting these, as it is amazing that this bridge remained when they scrapped this line. Every other bridge on the line seems to have gotten torn out.

Wabash - Village Creek Bridge
Posted November 25, 2014, by Dylan VanAntwerp (dylan_vanantwerp [at] live [dot] com)

Thanks John and James!

Wabash - Village Creek Bridge
Posted November 23, 2014, by James Holzmeier (wabashry [at] gmail [dot] com)

Agree with John...thanks for posting these photos, Dylan!!

Wabash - Village Creek Bridge
Posted November 23, 2014, by John Marvig (marvigj27 [at] gmail [dot] com)

Absolute brilliance, Dylan. I am absolutely in love with this set of photos. Hope to get my own sometime soon of this wonderful structure.

Absolutely wonderful find by Dylan, and absolutely splendid work by James for finding this information.