Rating:
2 votes

Blevins Bridge

Carter County, Tennessee

Photos 

Photo taken by Calvin Sneed

Enlarge

BH Photo #176171

Map 

Description 

A one-span, pinned Pratt through truss, with top chords and end post channels with lacing on the top and bottom. The bottom chords, which are below the floor beam, are paired rectilinear eyebards. Verticals are channels with lacing, except the hip verticals, which are paired rectilinear eyebards, as are the diagonals. The counters are paired rectilinear tie rods. The truss is resting on masonry abutments, probably erected in 1889 with concrete caps probably added in 1909 (the last known improvements).

Facts 

Overview
Pin-connected Pratt through truss bridge over Doe River on Old Tweetsie Railroad
Location
Carter County, Tennessee
Status
Open to single-lane traffic
History
Built in 1889 in another location, relocated here to replace a flood-damaged Howe truss railroad bridge by the East Tennessee & Western North Carolina Railroad Company on Tweetsie Line, now a county road
Builder
- Keystone Bridge Co. of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Railroad
- East Tennessee & Western North Carolina Railroad (ETWN)
Design
Pin-connected Pratt through truss
Dimensions
Length of largest span: 105.6 ft.
Total length: 110.8 ft.
Deck width: 9.1 ft.
Vertical clearance above deck: 19.8 ft.
Recognition
Eligible for the National Register of Historic Places
Also called
Tweetsie-Doe River Bridge #3
Approximate latitude, longitude
+36.23556, -82.15528   (decimal degrees)
36°14'08" N, 82°09'19" W   (degrees°minutes'seconds")
Approximate UTM coordinates
17/396185/4010694 (zone/easting/northing)
Quadrangle map:
Iron Mountain Gap
Average daily traffic (as of 2018)
50
Inventory numbers
TN 100A6340001 (Tennessee bridge number)
BH 32445 (Bridgehunter.com ID)
Inspection report (as of September 2017)
Overall condition: Poor
Superstructure condition rating: Fair (5 out of 9)
Substructure condition rating: Poor (4 out of 9)
Deck condition rating: Good (7 out of 9)
Sufficiency rating: 41 (out of 100)
View more at BridgeReports.com

Categories 

19th Century (7,744)
Built 1889 (243)
Built during 1880s (2,035)
Carter County, Tennessee (19)
East Tennessee & Western North Carolina Railroad (3)
Keystone Bridge Co. (64)
Laced endposts (160)
NR-eligible (4,061)
One-lane traffic (7,628)
Open (40,080)
Owned by county (21,024)
 Pin-connected (3,978)
Pratt through truss (5,513)
Pratt truss (9,476)
Rail-to-road (355)
Railroad (15,852)
Span length 100-125 feet (4,432)
Structurally deficient (13,758)
Tennessee (1,231)
Through truss (15,415)
Total length 100-125 feet (5,223)
Truss (33,355)

Update Log 

  • August 19, 2018: New photos from Jack Schmidt

Sources 

  • Calvin Sneed - us43137415 [at] yahoo [dot] com
  • Jack Schmidt - jjturtle [at] earthlink [dot] net
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Comments 

Blevins Bridge
Posted September 18, 2015, by Tony Dillon (spansaver [at] hotmail [dot] com)

I hadn't noticed this beauty before... Not sure how safe it is in Tennessee!

Blevins Bridge
Posted September 16, 2015, by Nathan Holth (nathan [at] historicbridges [dot] org)

Bridge to close September 24 http://www.johnsoncitypress.com/Local/2015/09/15/Carter-Coun...