Steel's Fish Trap Bridge

Another picture follows.

I visited here Sunday, Oct 25, 2015; The County has erected cattle panels across the corner of the road making access impossible by vehicle / very difficult on foot. From there it is a steep 300 yard downhill walk. The first half would be a mess after a good rain, the last half is still pretty solid. The bridge is still in place and in relatively good shape. Spring to summer it would be very overgrown and hard to view from any angle with poor light unless directly overhead. Fall / Winter is best. The deck was mostly moss, dirt covered but it appears that it is reinforced cross-wise with light rail stock? I did get some decent pics but really needed another 30 mins to fully explore all angles. Still, this is a real gem of architectural history and should be preserved and made easily accessible to exploit for local tourism.

The article does mention the possibility of repair though MoDot's Engineering Assistance program. Could that indicate that it will be restored for non commercial traffic?

Or does repair mean replace?

The news article fails to even mention the fact the bridge is almost 130 years old!! Doesn't something thats lasted three times as long as todays UCEB's at least deserve more respect than being labeled a "dangerous bridge?" Why don't we perform maintenance on these structures so they never get to this condition? I could really go into a rant here (this applies to other historical structures and landmarks too) but it would get too political so I'll leave it at that.

This nationally significant historic bridge is closed and may be doomed.

http://www.marshallnews.com/story/1825955.html

This is a neat little through truss Julie....but it looks to have been smashed by a tree or something big on that one truss as it is leaning quite a bit.

what a great bowstring. looks in good shape....

The bridge is walking distance from where I grew up. Lots of memories here. My sister and I visited it just last month when we were visiting my parents. We were surprised to find wild grapes growing on it!

I went over this bridge today. It's in good shape. The road was muddy and I didn't attempt to go farther north. Had to back up the way I came in.

What a unique old bridge. It's a great find. I went to check it out today and took some photos. It was the middle of an extremely hot, bright afternoon so the contrast between light and shadow made it difficult to get a good image. I'll upload a few that I took from water level to give a different perspective.

Webmaster's note: The photos that were here have been incorporated into the main site.