17th Street Wilderness Road Bridge
Description
The date given for this span is likely for when it was placed at this location. A pinned span with this much lacing is ca.1900 or older.Facts
- Overview
- Through truss bridge over Yellow Creek on 17th Street (also known as Wildnerness Road, also old U.S. 25-E)) in Middlesborough
- Location
- Middlesboro, Bell County, Kentucky
- Status
- Open to traffic
- History
- Built ca. 1890
- Design
- Pinned Warren through truss
- Dimensions
-
Length of largest span: 78.1 ft.
Total length: 89.9 ft.
Deck width: 13.4 ft.
Vertical clearance above deck: 17.5 ft.
- Also called
- Wilderness Road Bridge
Old Highway 25-E Bridge - Approximate latitude, longitude
- +36.61083, -83.71083 (decimal degrees)
36°36'39" N, 83°42'39" W (degrees°minutes'seconds") - Approximate UTM coordinates
- 17/257550/4055124 (zone/easting/northing)
- Quadrangle map:
- Middlesboro South
- Average daily traffic (as of 2010)
- 67
- Inventory numbers
- KY 007-C00072N (Kentucky bridge number)
BH 18708 (Bridgehunter.com ID) - Inspection report (as of June 2017)
- Overall condition: Fair
Superstructure condition rating: Fair (5 out of 9)
Substructure condition rating: Fair (5 out of 9)
Deck condition rating: Satisfactory (6 out of 9)
Sufficiency rating: 24 (out of 100)
View more at BridgeReports.com
Update Log
- October 24, 2019: New photos from Ben Tate
- August 26, 2018: New photos from Jack Schmidt
- November 1, 2016: Updated by Christopher Finigan: Added category "Pin-connected"
- October 4, 2010: Updated by Anthony Dillon: Changed truss type and added new information
- October 3, 2010: New photos from Calvin Sneed
- March 13, 2010: Updated by Bill Eichelberger: Added Google Street View.
Sources
- Bill Eichelberger
- Calvin Sneed - us43137415 [at] yahoo [dot] com
- Tony Dillon - spansaver [at] hotmail [dot] com
- Jack Schmidt - jjturtle [at] earthlink [dot] net
- Ben Tate - benji5221 [at] yahoo [dot] com
Comments
We saw a broken pin in Kansas at Mulberry Creek, that was a replacement, made with an axle with a cotter pin. It lasted 50 years until it cracked in half, where a hole was drilled. Kept all the bars in place! Those road guys were frugal. $13000 repair that was rejected by the county.
Interesting that the pins are pinned, and picture 8 shows what looks like a hole in a pin, possibly for third (cotter?) pin.
I've never seen that before. Pins have nuts on them in my experience.
Curious. It’s possible that this bridge came from a long ways away. Typically, railroads would move them via flatcar while fully disassembled. It’s possible the bridge was purchased from a railroad, who moved it to this location for the purchaser (city?). I would doubt the structure was moved here before the 1920s.
In a newspaper article from 1889 Middleboro is described as a railroad town; an iron city.
I have not found anything useful.
Absolutely agree with Nathan’s 2014 comment-this is clearly a railroad bridge. The laced endposts are uncommon in railroad bridges, and I’ve only seen a few structures like that. I would love to know where it came from, so we could then track down a confirmed build date.
Very disappointed that nobody has commented further on this bridge. It is a rare pin-connected Warren through truss. It has extremely deep built-up floor beams which strongly suggest this was originally a railroad bridge.
This page's URL is http://bridgehunter.com/ky/bell/7C00072N/
"Interesting that the pins are pinned, and picture 8 shows what looks like a hole in a pin, possibly for third (cotter?) pin."
That looks as if it was a repair job as the other pins look different. The other pins look as if they are tapered slightly and were driven in until tight. The one in picture 8 appears to have been flattened slightly on one end so it will not go through the hole.It also seems to have many washers as spacers on the main pin to support the joint.
A closer look at the main pin gives clues that it was made from smaller round stock with a hollow outer piece (pipe) used to increase the diameter. The retaining pin was likely something they found in the shop and adapted to the use, the small cross drilled hole being from previous use.