RI - Sylvan Slough Lattice Truss

Unfortunately, most of any records that would publicly available for the Rock Island probably ended up in the trash, or hopefully are still in a basement somewhere. The measurements on the two Rock River bridges certainly do not suggest any relation to this bridge at all.

The northern bridge has a single 150' span, followed by two 155' spans. I saw no alterations to these spans to suggest that they were heavily modified. The piers did not have a date stamp, nor did the abutments. The north abutment appears to be newer than the other substructures, while the remaining substructures may to be older stone with a concrete encasement. The sizes strongly indicate these spans are not related to Sylvan Slough.

The southern bridge has two 135' spans, with a 150' span on the end. All piers are stamped with a 1930 date, and appear to have been constructed then. The two shorter spans do show signs of alterations, mainly limited to the portals. The portals of the shorter spans are also different than the southern span. The date stamps strongly indicate these spans are not related to Sylvan Slough.

For posterity's sake and to give credit where credit is due, I want to note that the "The spans were reused on the Rock River" thing has been debunked by John Marvig.

Specifically, the span lengths don't match up and there are no signs of modification suggesting their lengths were altered.

This persistent myth was even printed in a bulletin published as part of the 2011 Quad Cities Train Festival. Said bulletin was the basis for some of my earliest entries on the site.

The Rock Island DID reuse bridges, but the lattice trusses that spanned here previously were not relocated down-line to the Rock River. Where did they end up? John will probably find that out too.