Sangamon Valley Trail - Sangamon River Bridge
Photos
Photo taken by Elliott Johnson in April 2014
License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike (CC BY-SA)
BH Photo #281919
Description
This bridge was part of an abandoned segment of the St. Louis, Peoria and North Western Railway, later consolidated into the Chicago and North Western Railroad. It was constructed in 1911-1913 with $10.0 million in capital raised by the Chicago and North Western Railway to haul coal from Macoupin County mines operated by the Superior Coal Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Chicago and Northwestern. The six Macoupin coal mines served by the St. Louis, Peoria and Northwestern yielded an estimated 2.0 million tons of coal annually, almost all of which was burned by the Chicago and North Western in its steam railway operations.Facts
- Overview
- Abandoned deck truss bridge over Sangamon River on future Sangamon Valley Trail
- Location
- Sangamon County, Illinois
- Status
- Open to pedestrians only
- History
- Built 1913, Approaches Added 1921
- Builders
- - Cleary-White Construction Co. of Chicago, Illinois (Substructure)
- King Bridge Co. of Cleveland, Ohio (Superstructure)
- Railroads
- - Chicago & North Western Railway (CNW)
- St. Louis, Peoria & North Western Railway (StLP&NW)
- Design
- Double-intersection Warren deck truss
- Dimensions
-
Length of largest span: 150.0 ft.
Total length: 1,200.0 ft.
- Also called
- C&NW Bridge #1848
- Approximate latitude, longitude
- +39.86131, -89.71180 (decimal degrees)
39°51'41" N, 89°42'42" W (degrees°minutes'seconds") - Approximate UTM coordinates
- 16/268037/4415883 (zone/easting/northing)
- Quadrangle map:
- Springfield West
- Inventory number
- BH 50914 (Bridgehunter.com ID)
Update Log
- April 29, 2019: New photos from John Marvig
- April 16, 2014: New photos from Elliott Johnson
- January 12, 2012: Added by Steve Conro
Sources
- Steve Conro - sconro [at] yahoo [dot] com
- Elliott Johnson - elliottsgon15 [at] hotmail [dot] com
- John Marvig - marvigj27 [at] gmail [dot] com
Comments
Photo Credit: Roger Long
new deck
sangamon river foundation work photo
came across this photo
This bridge is now open to the public for pedestrian and bicycle use only.
for future reference, the 5 truss spans pre-date the approaches and abutments. there were originally timber trestle approaches on each side of the trusses over the river. I believe those date to 1911 or 1912. Nearly a decade later, the steel spans and concrete piers and abutments were added. It is a very spectacular bridge and very grand in scale. The second track was never added, but the bridge was built big enough to handle 2 trains.
The bridge "deck" is in the process of being replaced.
Work has begun on the extension of the Sangamon Valley Trail extension. The main structure will remain but the deck will be reworked for bicycle/pedestrian usage.
This page's URL is http://bridgehunter.com/il/sangamon/bh50914/
This bridge was repurposed and opened to pedestrians in November 2017 as part of the Sangamon Valley Trail. It's a beautiful spot!