Raytown Road Bridge
Facts
- Overview
- Wooden trestle bridge over the inactive Rock Island Railroad on Raytown Road in Raytown
- Location
- Kansas City, Jackson County, Missouri
- Status
- Open to one-lane northbound traffic
- History
- Built 1904; reduced to one-way traffic in 2004; rehabilitated 2005
- Railroad
- - Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad (CRIP (1866-1920); RI (1920-1975) ROCK (1975-1980))
- Design
- Steel stringer with wooden piers
- Dimensions
-
Length of largest span: 34.1 ft.
Total length: 195.8 ft.
Deck width: 21.3 ft.
- Recognition
- Eligible for the National Register of Historic Places
- Approximate latitude, longitude
- +39.00614, -94.46388 (decimal degrees)
39°00'22" N, 94°27'50" W (degrees°minutes'seconds") - Approximate UTM coordinates
- 15/373247/4318476 (zone/easting/northing)
- Quadrangle map:
- Independence
- Land survey
- T. 48 N., R. 32 W., Sec. 5
- Average daily traffic (as of 2015)
- 9,650
- Inventory numbers
- MO 048-361500.5 (Missouri off-system bridge number)
MONBI 22555 (Missouri bridge number on the National Bridge Inventory)
BH 21710 (Bridgehunter.com ID) - Inspection report (as of January 2017)
- Overall condition: Fair
Superstructure condition rating: Satisfactory (6 out of 9)
Substructure condition rating: Fair (5 out of 9)
Deck condition rating: Good (7 out of 9)
Sufficiency rating: 74.2 (out of 100)
View more at BridgeReports.com
Update Log
- August 18, 2013: New Street View added by Kelly McClanahan
- April 24, 2008: Updated by Max Johnson
- April 23, 2008: Updated by Max Johnson
- June 26, 2006: Posted new photos
Related Bridges
- RI - 47th Street Overpass (Same project)
- RI - Frost Road Arch (Same project)
- RI - 75th Street Overpass (Same project)
Comments
The bridge was part of a major road at the time connecting Grandview Missouri with the county seat in Independence. It cut the travel time between the two by several hours. Important for a young man from Grandview who had just purchased his first car so that he could drive to Independence to visit his girlfriend. The young man was Harry Truman and his girlfriend was Bess.
The line is now owned by Jackson County. Work is slated to begin next year to convert it into a trail. Here is a Youtube of want they want to do https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNv9iphvRoQ. This bridge is at about the 2 minute mark. It continues all the way to 59th Street.
Link to an undated photo showing roughly the same scene as the first street view. The bridge is visible between the station and train. The train is facing toward Lee's Summit, east on the line.
http://raytownhistoricalsociety.org/sitebuildercontent/siteb...
This page's URL is http://bridgehunter.com/mo/jackson/raytown-road/
Here is a link to a historical photo of the bridge. This is taken from the top of the bridge looking north and, as near as I can tell, in about the 1940s:
http://raytownchamber.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/history...
Some of the houses & buildings in the photo are still there and none date from before 1940. Cars and trucks appear to match that approximate date as well. With the wagons and such this might be a special event like a Fourth of July parade.