Rating:
4 votes

Maple Mill Bridge

Washington County, Iowa

Photos 

Photo taken by Quinn Phelan in August 2012

Enlarge

BH Photo #236817

Map 

Facts 

Overview
Lost through truss bridge over English River on Fir Avenue
Location
Washington County, Iowa
Status
Destroyed by flooding as of 3/10/2016
History
Built 1886; Closed 1995 after being hit by a car; Destroyed by flooding ca 2016.
Builder
- King Bridge Co. of Cleveland, Ohio
Design
Pratt through truss
A-frame portal bracing
Dimensions
Length of largest span: 63.0 ft.
Total length: 98.1 ft.
Deck width: 13.5 ft.
Approximate latitude, longitude
+41.50366, -91.84857   (decimal degrees)
41°30'13" N, 91°50'55" W   (degrees°minutes'seconds")
Approximate UTM coordinates
15/596097/4595310 (zone/easting/northing)
Quadrangle map:
Amish
Inventory numbers
IA 337920 (Iowa bridge number)
BH 49527 (Bridgehunter.com ID)

Categories 

19th Century (8,304)
A-frame portal (486)
Built 1886 (208)
Built during 1880s (2,161)
Destroyed by flood (590)
English River (Iowa) (32)
Historic Bridge Weekend 2013 (145)
Iowa (6,789)
King Bridge Co. (435)
Lost (28,364)
 Owned by county (21,598)
Pin-connected (4,668)
Pratt through truss (6,042)
Pratt truss (10,276)
Span length 50-75 feet (10,414)
Through truss (16,699)
Total length 75-100 feet (6,778)
Truss (35,365)
Washington County, Iowa (140)

Update Log 

  • November 20, 2021: Updated by Luke: Added image and corrected build date per article and design cues
  • June 16, 2016: Updated by Matt Lohry: New Google Earth imagery shows this bridge lying in a pile with a lot of debris piled up on its west side
  • June 16, 2013: Updated by Luke Harden: Changed name
  • October 26, 2012: Updated by Jason Smith: Added categories "Pin-connected", "English River (Iowa)"
  • August 7, 2012: Updated by Jason Smith: The bridge has A-frame portal bracing
  • August 6, 2012: New photos from Quinn Phelan
  • September 6, 2011: Added by Jason Smith

Sources 

  • Jason Smith - flensburg [dot] bridgehunter [dot] av [at] googlemail [dot] com
  • Quinn Phelan - qphelan [at] earthlink [dot] net
  • Luke
  • Matt Lohry
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Comments 

Maple Mill Bridge
Posted November 20, 2021, by Luke

Double-checked with Tony, but he also thought the far portal looked 1880s vs 1890s and an article confirmed that it was built in 1886.

Maple Mill Bridge
Posted June 27, 2016, by Kevin Skow (weatherbum [at] hotmail [dot] com)

Reviewing before and after imagery in Google Earth, it appears like the southern river bank at and immediately to the west of the bridge gave out, with the falling trees pushing the bridge into the river. I can only make out the northern 1/3 to 1/2 of the span sitting above the water. The rest appears to have been destroyed.

Maple Mill Bridge
Posted June 17, 2016, by Jason Smith (flensburg [dot] bridgehunter [dot] av [at] googlemail [dot] com)

Looks like the bridge is still standing but has been pushed off its abutments, judging from my bird's eye view....

Maple Mill Bridge
Posted June 16, 2016, by Robert Elder (robertelder1 [at] gmail [dot] com)

Based on Google imagery, it appears that this bridge might have been hit by a logjam. It is hard to tell for certain.