Midland Valley Trail - Arkansas River Bridge
Photos
Oblique View of Bridge Looking Southwest
Photo taken 1957, when this was still an active railroad bridge.
Photo from Beryl Ford Collection/Tulsa Rotary Club, Tulsa City-County Library and Tulsa Historical Society.
View this photo at tulsalibrary.org
BH Photo #126520
Facts
- Overview
- Warren deck truss bridge over Arkansas River on Tulsa River Parks Trail in Tulsa
- Location
- Tulsa, Tulsa County, Oklahoma
- Status
- Derelict/abandoned
- Future prospects
- Scheduled for demolition
- History
- Built 1917, Approach Added 1937 converted to pedestrian/bicycle trail bridge in 1976.
- Railroad
- - Midland Valley Railroad (MV)
- Design
- Built as Warren deck truss, wooden pedestrian and bicycle trail built inside trusses, but original ties remain.
- Also called
- Midland Valley - Arkansas River Bridge
- Approximate latitude, longitude
- +36.12100, -95.98855 (decimal degrees)
36°07'16" N, 95°59'19" W (degrees°minutes'seconds") - Approximate UTM coordinates
- 15/231023/4001506 (zone/easting/northing)
- Quadrangle map:
- Jenks
- Inventory number
- BH 37704 (Bridgehunter.com ID)
Update Log
- February 14, 2021: New photos from J Lance
- February 13, 2021: New photos from J Lance
- May 22, 2017: Photo imported by Dave King
- April 21, 2017: Updated by Christopher Finigan: Added categories "Rail-to-trail", "Riveted"
- April 21, 2017: New Street View added by Dave King
- October 20, 2008: Added by Rick Mattioni
Sources
- Rick Mattioni
- Dave King - DKinghawkfan [at] hotmail [dot] com
- J Lance - bugo [at] hotmail [dot] com
Comments
A petition to reevaluate saving this bridge has been started:
https://www.thepetitionsite.com/479/148/630/save-the-tulsa-p...
The issue that I see is the approach on one end was removed to make room for a park project a couple years back.
But if they would just fix up the historic bridge, they would be right on Target.
Since the new bridge will likely be a bland, mundane MOB, they should make the trail lead to as many Wal-marts as possible...
A post in the comments section suggests that the bridge is unsafe for a short length near one end.
So they're going to tear it down and build a wonderful new bridge that will last 100 years.
Maybe they will change the trail's name to "The Money Trail". It would be interesting to see where that trail goes.
That is too bad. It is hard to convince people to see the value in truss bridges. Of course, people didn't see the value in historic buildings of any type during the urban renewal of the 1950s and 1960s. Now we have come to regret those mistakes.
Robert,
What I'm reading out of the article isn't deterioration. They just want to place a modern bridge there instead. Such shameless wastefulness.
So, a bridge that once carried trains has been allowed to deteriorate to the point that it cannot carry pedestrians? A little paint and an occasional cleaning does wonders for preserving metal. This is a lot cheaper than replacing a bridge.
Not maintaining a bridge and then replacing it is like junking a three year old car because the tires are bald.
http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/local/public-input-sought-for...
Seems extremely wasteful and stupid to me...
This bridge is doomed.
Hi, How long is the bridge if you walk all the way across?
This page's URL is http://bridgehunter.com/ok/tulsa/bh37704/
Bridge in question below