Burned UP/C&EI Bridge over Middle Fork Big Muddy River north of West Frankfort, IL

(no Bridge Hunter; no Historic Bridges; Satellite)

WFCN News - Swinford Media Group posted

UPDATE: Union Pacific Railroad is working to repair a main railway line that was heavily damaged following an overnight fire in Franklin County.

The fire destroyed a segment of railway along the Big Muddy River bridge approximately 0.65 miles north of the West Frankfort city limits.

All rail traffic has been temporarily halted while crews work to repair the damaged section of railway. Firefighters spent much of early Monday morning continuing to battle the fire by using both water and foam to fully extinguish it.

There is currently no estimated timeline on how long the section of railway will be closed. The railway line connects into larger freight routes to the north and south, and runs through local communities such as Mount Vernon, Benton, and Marion.

1963/64 West Frankfort Quad @ 24,000

Collapsed 1975 and Extant 1919 Bridges over Canadian River at Calvin, OK

1919: (Archived Bridge Hunter; Bridge Hunter; no Historic Bridges; Satellite)

1975+1978: (Satellite) 1978 is my guess as to when the replacement bridge was finished.

I thought this was an bogus AI photo until I read the comments.

The collapse happened on May 21, 1976. [greenspun]

Note that the 1975 bridge stood for just a year or so before it fell down!

I thought this photo was bogus because there is no pier between the middle two collapsed spans. I guess the bridge collapsed because the pier disappeared. But how does a pier disappear?

Lunna Lucky posted
Bridge collapse Calvin OK

There were two fatalities.

newspapers, paycount of 5

I can't find any information about the cause of the collapse. 

"On May 28, 1976, the Commission authorized the Highway Department to contract with consulting firm Modjeski and Masters to perform an independent and unbiased investigation into the cause of the US-75 bridge collapse north of Calvin." [odot]

Has ODOT scrubbed all copies of that report off the internet?

1913 Bridge

I'll bet the locals were really glad that they didn't quickly tear down the old bridge after the new one was built. They at least had this old bridge to use while the new one was repaced.

Street View, May 2022

This view shows that the river was rather high in the above view. It also shows that the bridge has four spans.

Street View, Jan 2026

When I zoomed in to confirm that the bridge is pin connected, I noticed the bridge in the background. It is an abandoned railroad bridge.

Street View, Jan 2026

And the river is even lower in this photo.

OKbridges, this webpage has more photos
"This bridge was one of the earliest state-standardized designs built in Oklahoma, and other bridges exist similar in design. The state-standardized designs represented a trend towards heavier bridges than the ones commonly built from the catalogs of bridge companies."

Street View, Jun 2013

1907-72 Aban/B&O/Coal & Coke Kingsville (#1) Tunnel

(B&T; Satellite)

West Portal:

B&T
B&O abandoned the tunnel in 1972.

East Portal:

wvrailmuseum 
"As stated in Mr. Clarke's book, Kingsville Tunnel is 834 feet [254m] long, of medium sandstone, shale and four-foot coal seam, with 1907 sandstone facades (surviving on the east end, the west end having the elegant 1924 facade added by the B&O); sandstone walls and partial brick arch."

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Linda erroneously claims the tunnel was built in 1924 instead of 1907 because the number 1924 is in the west facade.

I could not find Kingsville. B&T says "The Coal & Coke Railway (C&C) is a former railroad between Charleston and Elkins, West Virginia." It was fully merged into B&O in 1934. B&O started abandoning parts of that route in 1941.

Rumsey, 1948

1913-1984 3,350' (1,021m) Allegheny River Trail/Pennsy Tunnel in Kennerdell, PA

(Satellite, the map pin is not positioned accurately. The trail marking is accurate.)

Harmony, Dec 2024

The tunnel has a curve, so the above photo was taken after they travelled past the curve.

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The tunnel opened in 1913, and it was abandoned in 1984. It is 3,350' (1,021m) long.

1963/65 Kennerdell Quad @ 24,000

I started with an older map, but the tunnel wasn't built until 1913.

1911/44 Franklin Quad @ 62,500

I included the scale in this image because the above video says it eliminated 14 miles of travel. It looks like about a couple of miles to me.

Satellite

Hennepin Canal Bridge #4 east of Tiskilwa, IL

(Satellite)

Hennepin Canal Overview

Hennepin Canal State Park posted
Today's Throwback Thursday picture was taken in 1970 and features Bridge #4, east of Tiskilwa.

It has been replaced with an embankment and culverts.

Street View, Aug 2023

1906-75 Western Maryland Stickpile (GreenRidge) Tunnel

Geographic North Portal: (Satellite)

Geographic South Portal: (Satellite)

When I entered Stickpile Tunnel in Google Maps, it took me to Indigo Tunnel. Fortunately, a USGS map took me to the correct location.

The black blob in the upper-left corner of this view from the C&O Canal Towpath Trail may be the south portal of the tunnel.

Street View, Apr 2016

The tunnel was, and still is, framed with timber.

HAER MD-175-81
Interior of Tunnel No. 1356, Stick Pile Tunnel showing timber framing and missing posts, looking northeast. - Western Maryland Railway, Cumberland Extension, Pearre to North Branch, from WM milepost 125 to 160, Pearre, Washington County, MD

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It was built in 1906 and abandoned in 1975. It is 1706,5' (520m) long.
Linda encountered a strange streaming fog about 3/4 of the way through. She also recorded some weird noises.

Steve 1828 Flickr, License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND) via OnlyInYourState

Note that Steve's photo below has a much smaller gate than Linda's video above shows. It was taken on June 4, 2011.

Steve 1828 Flickr, License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND) 

Stickpile Tunnel is in the upper-left quadrant of this image. I included the B&O Stuart & Randolph Tunnels and the abandoned C&O Canal to document that we are in the B&O Paw Paw Bends.

1950/67 Paw Paw Quad @ 24,000

I zoomed into the Stickpile Tunnel because it shows the southern portal to be further inland than my satellite location. Fortunately, before I deleted my street view at the top of these notes, I did some more research. I think the topo map is wrong. I normally don't see errors like this in the topo maps.

Digitally Zoomed

River Explorer agrees that the portal is south of Kasecamp Road rather than up by Carroll Road.

RiverExplorer

And I found a couple of Google Earth images that show the portal is near the C&O Canal.

Google Earth, Apr 2025

Google Earth, Apr 2008

1888 Miller Farm Road Bridge over Oil Creek near Pleasantville, PA

(Archived Bridge Hunter; Bridge Hunter; Historic Bridges; Satellite)

I could not determine if this bridge was made with iron or steel. 

HistoricBridges
The span is 150' (45.7m).
"Bridge Status: Previous plans for demolition were changed and now the bridge will be rehabilitated."

Photo by Janis Ford via BridgeHunter

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