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Norway Bridge

Republic County, Kansas

Photos 

Photo taken by Nick Schmiedeler in November 2017

Enlarge

BH Photo #411034

Map 

Description 

Traveling through north central Kansas last week I stopped at an antique store in Republic County. Saw a commemorative plate from 1975 with a photo of a bridge on it, something called the Republican River Bridge at Norway with the date of 1975 stamped on it. Began research, found an article from The Salina Journal from 1979 (see photos for entire article in sequential pieces, fascinating story), all I have so far is a photo of the plate, screenshot photos of the entire bridge history article (was a pay site so I cheated a bit), and would invite more input on this seemingly forgotten three-span Whipple!!

Facts 

Overview
Lost Whipple through truss bridge over Republican River on Kansas Highway 148 ( K-148)
Location
Norway, Republic County, Kansas
Status
Replaced by a new bridge
History
Built over the winter of 1886-1887. Please see bridge photos to read the entire story of the bridge, as I photographed, in segments, a story published in the Salina Journal on July 29th, 1979 re: detailed history & planned replacement in the Fall
Builder
- King Iron Bridge & Manufacturing Co. of Cleveland, Ohio [also known as King Bridge Co.]
Design
3-span Whipple through truss, 473' long, made up of 3 157' spans. From the article (see photos), 2 plaques were on at least one end.
Dimensions
Length of largest span: 157.0 ft.
Total length: 473.0 ft.
Deck width: 17.0 ft.
Also called
Norway Whipple Truss Bridge
Republican River Bridge
Approximate latitude, longitude
+39.69651, -97.79161   (decimal degrees)
39°41'47" N, 97°47'30" W   (degrees°minutes'seconds")
Approximate UTM coordinates
14/603604/4394771 (zone/easting/northing)
Quadrangle map:
Kackley
Land survey
Norway, Kansas
Inventory number
BH 79479 (Bridgehunter.com ID)

Categories 

19th Century (8,304)
Built 1887 (237)
Built during 1880s (2,161)
Formerly NR-eligible (448)
Kansas (3,269)
King Bridge Co. (435)
King Iron Bridge & Manufacturing Co. (59)
Lost (28,364)
Lost 1981 (104)
Lost during 1980s (1,527)
 Norway, Kansas (1)
Owned by state (16,547)
Replaced by new bridge (19,289)
Republic County, Kansas (42)
Span length 125-175 feet (4,414)
Through truss (16,699)
Total length 250-500 feet (5,503)
Truss (35,365)
Whipple truss (462)

Update Log 

  • October 9, 2019: New photo from Melissa Brand-Welch
  • November 17, 2017: New photo from Luke
  • November 17, 2017: Added by Nick Schmiedeler

Sources 

  • Nick Schmiedeler - nick [at] nickschmiedeler [dot] com
  • Luke
  • Melissa Brand-Welch - melissabrandwelch [at] msn [dot] com
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Comments 

Norway Bridge
Posted February 8, 2021, by Kirk Hoffman (khoffman76 [at] att [dot] net)

I was a college student working for the KS Highway during the summers of 1971 & 1972. I helped one of the engineers (Jim Haase) create blueprints for this bridge. It took about a month as I crawled all over the bridge measuring the thickness of the steel with calipers and noting locations of bolts, nuts, etc. I would yell out the measurements to Jim and he would meticulously document them.

Not sure this was a good use of government dollars since the bridge was replaced a few years later. However, I only made about $2 per hour.

Norway Bridge
Posted October 9, 2019, by Melissa Brand-Welch (melissabrandwelch [at] msn [dot] com)

Nick, please tell me you bought the commemorative plate.

Republican River Bridge at Norway
Posted November 17, 2017, by Robert Elder (robertelder1 [at] gmail [dot] com)

I find it interesting but KDOT was considering some options with this bridge. A loss of this bridge really was a tragedy for historic preservation. This was an extremely significant bridge. Hopefully at least a few components such as to plaques and finials might have been preserved somewhere.