Hinsdale Oak Street Bridge

(Bridge Hunter, Historic Bridges, Birds-Eye View)

I walked to the west end of the platform and waited for the train that was coming so I caught a picture with a train under and van on top.

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And after the train went through, I was able to use the pedestrian crossing...

...to take a picture from the middle of the tracks of the east elevation.

Edward Kwiatkowski shared a Marty Benard posting
 CBQ 4960 passing under the old Oak Street Bridge, Hinsdale, IL in October 1961. A Rick Burn photo.

The Hinsdale newspaper had an article about the new design.

I think it is interesting that the village is worried about how to make the crossing as painful as it used to be with the one lane so that more people won't use the new bridge. It sounds like they should have just repaired the old steel girder bridge.

Since it has just one lane, there are traffic lights at each end of the bridge to control which direction can use it. My first crossing was south to north, and I joined a line of a few cars waiting to cross.

They plan to replace the bridge so they closed the pedestrian crossing rather than repair it. The steep approaches are more old fashioned than...

...the steel girder construction.

I'll include just one north-to-south picture because they are rather redundant.

Update: Mike indicates in his "A high time at Highlands" posting in June 2010 that the bridge's deck is reputed to be an old turntable. That would explain why steel girders were used.

John Tyson posted
Canadian National SD40-2W 5305 leads an East bound freight through Hinsdale IL on a cloudy Fall day in 1993. The Highlands Depot is just behind the photographer. (Likely my dad's shot) The one lane bridge was the backdrop to many Highlands photos. It was replaced a few years ago.
Matt McClure The replacement bridge is beautiful, but vertical side fencing was added to deter photography.
Craig Cloud Doubt you need to stand on the bridge if on the embankment next to would suffice.
Matt McClure Craig Cloud Lots of places to take photos along the tracks--both sides have platforms. The nice part about the bridge is the staggering distance east you can see and a fair distance west so it is very possible to shoot meets. The station is totally photogenic.

Street View

Terrence Donahue posted twelve photos with the comment: "A lucky day in September, 1986 on the old one-lane Oak Street bridge in Hinsdale as I caught a westbound special pulling the Barnum & Bailey Ringling Brothers Circus Train.  By the time I moved to the west side of the bridge, it met the eastbound California Zephyr.  Of note on the west side is the "tell-tale" warning ropes were still intact.  I cannot remember when they removed the tell-tales from the east side of the bridge near the Highlands station. The second locomotive in this westbound special is clearly a GP-30."