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Photo from HAER IOWA,56-FMAD.1--15 (CT) from ia0438SWING SPAN FROM NORTHWEST - Fort Madison Bridge, Spanning Mississippi River at U.S. Highway 61, Fort Madison, Lee County, IA
This bridge is a major river span and
had, at the time of its construction,
the longest and heaviest electrified
swing span on the Mississippi River.
The bridge superstructure was built by
American Bridge Company, one of the
largest bridge companies in American
history.
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| John A. Weeks III |
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| Iowa Road Trip posted Getting Barged: When the swing bridge opens up over the Mississippi River at Ft. Madison, Iowa causing you to be 20 minutes late. Fort Madison Toll Bridge is one of the last operating swing bridges remaining over the Mississippi River for automobile traffic. The Fort Madison Toll Bridge (also known as the Santa Fe Swing Span Bridge for the old Santa Fe rail line) is a tolled, swinging truss bridge over the Mississippi River that connects Fort Madison, Iowa, and Niota, Illinois. Rail traffic occupies the lower deck of the bridge, while two lanes of road traffic occupy the upper deck. The double-decker bridge was the longest and largest double-deck swing-span bridge in the world when constructed in 1927. |
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| Visit For Madison posted 𝓥𝓲𝓷𝓽𝓪𝓰𝓮 𝓕𝓸𝓻𝓽 𝓜𝓪𝓭𝓲𝓼𝓸𝓷 "A Santa Fe passenger train entering Iowa off the 1927 ATSF bridge. The vantage point was somewhere inside or on top of the Sheaffer Pen Co. building. The image was sold on Santa Fe passenger trains as a souvenir." 📷 North Lee County Historical Society |
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| North Lee County Historical Society posted Remember this day when Mississippi River Bridge was stuck in open position for about 18 hours account lead barge lodged on pier blocking swing span. Happened at 6:15 pm Sunday May 15, 1983. Remember a ATSF official arrived by plane and wanted to blowup the barge but Army Corps of Engineers official said he would end up in jail. Quickly tons of grain were pumped into another barge so was able to pull from pier. 2 freight trains and one Amtrak train were detoured over Burlington Northern tracks and 24 other train delayed. Photo in the archives of the North Lee County Historical Society awaiting the tourist season so come visit before the crowd arrives. Open 10-4 Mon-Sat and noon-4 pm Sunday. Randy Coleman: I was working that wreck as a deck hand for Hall Towing. That’s what happens when you bounce off of the Iowa side and hit the swingspan at full throttle. Bruse Congdon shared Jim Manley: I was the marine surveyor on this mess. The barge was loaded with DDG which is all that kept it from sinking. Worked with Don Hall, a great guy. Parts of the bridge locking gear were torn off and we had to give those back. |
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| Steven J. Brown posted |
Steven's comment:
In case you were wondering; It is possible to catch the California Zephyr crossing the Mississippi at West Burlington, Iowa then drive twenty miles and catch the Southwest Chief crossing at Ft. Madison, Iowa. Well, at least it worked out that way for me - June 11, 2002.
From Bridge Hunters: Photo provided by Hank Zaletel, Flickr version
License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND)
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| Ronald Hirsch posted Westbound crossing the Mississippi river bridge at Ft. Madison, Iowa in summer 1999. [I was going to pass on this photo until I noticed how the orange truck over the orange loco helps illustrate the two decks of this bridge. Then the BNSF H1 livery caught my eye.] |
1909. It was C&NW's second crossing. The first bridge was just to the south. You can still see the remaining piers on Google Earth. The reason it's being replaced is because the Army Corp of Engineers want all the swing spans removed from the upper Mississippi. BNSF replaced their Burlington swing span with a lift bridge. I thought UP might do the same but they want to build a full clearance structure instead. Got to hand it to UP, they don't think small.I asked how long do I have to get pictures of this bridge. He answered:
Probably no more than 50 to 60 foot clearance for the tugs Dennis. I haven't been able to find any plans or site maps for the new bridge, but I'm guessing the new structure will be north of the current bridge.
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| John Lewis posted On a bitterly cold day, BNSF 7593 leads an eastbound intermodal across the Mississippi River at Fort Madison, Iowa. 2 Mar 2010. Dennis DeBruler I was surprised how close the river was to the top of the piers. I was wondering if the river was in a flood stage. But then I looked at the photos on Bridge Hunter and saw that the river has a very consistent level here. https://bridgehunter.com/ia/lee/fort-madison/ So I then looked downstream to see what kind of dam is controlling the river level here. It is the Keokuk Dam. That would explain why the river level doesn't vary much here. That dam is not a standard Army Corps of Engineers 9-foot navigation channel dam. It was built earlier with a much higher dam height to harness river rapids for hydroelectric power. https://www.google.com/.../@40.3951811,-91.../data=!3m1!1e3 |
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| Steve Barft posted Coming off the bridge WB at FtMad 1992 Steve Rippeteau photo |
These videos make me appreciate that the local drawbridges around here (Chiacagoland) unlock and lock pretty quickly. I thought they were slow. But now I see that they are rather fast.
(new window) Video of train crossings and span opening for an upstream, 15-barge tow. Its the fastest train speed I have seen across a big movable bridge. You can tell that BNSF runs their hot intermodal and vehicle trains to southern California on this route. The river looks like it is flowing pretty good; the towboat is pushing a big propwash. The marina's breakwater provides a nice spot to set up your tripod.
(new window) Is the bridge really so low that it has to open up for speedboats? Or did it just happen to arrive just after it opened for the upbound tow?
(new window) I'm surprised how loud all of the locomotives are. Why would they be pulling hard going down into a river valley and across a level river?
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| Screenshot, Ronald Hirsh An eastbound intermodal comes over the Mississippi river bridge and heads into Illinois at Niota to continue its journey to Chicago in 1994. My video. Shot from my boat. |
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| Screenshot (Ronald Hirsch posted) Sam Bailey One of the biggest bottlenecks on the southern transcon is that bridge. Kim M. Hornbaker Ron Hirsch --I know that I was on board"the party barge pontoon" that day. To the people that have never done this we would spend the whole day( daylight to dark) on your boat and film literally every train thru Ft Madison( including the BNSF "K line"). Since 9/11 you cannot linger around this bridge or police will "intercept" your activity. These were good times not to be repeated. That day affected us FOREVER-- I will never forget what it did to America. Ronald Hirsch also posted BNSF (Santa Fe) Mississippi river railroad/highway bridge at Ft. Madison, Iowa. October 1996.. We see the bridge closing after a northbound barge passes.. we are looking at the east side of the bridge.. Mike Davison Oldest swing bridge in operation.. I use to live in ft. Madison ia |
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| Brian Watt commented on Ronald's post ATSF PR Dept Shot. Date unknown. |
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| Robin Beelman Foehring posted BNSF swingspan bridge and Riverview Park, Fort Madison, Iowa. [The post includes a video of this boat following the tow through the bridge.] |
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| One of sixteen photos posted by Matt McClure His photos not only include the span opening on Sept. 2, 2020, he caught two eastbound intermodal trains crossing the bridge at the same time after the span closed. |
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| Michael O'Brien posted AT&AF SANTA FE BRIDGE FORT MADISON, IOWA Steam Passenger Train c1946. |
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| Aaron Jensen commented on Michael's post April 2018 [Because of the arrow, I noticed that this was a street view.] John Cannon shared |
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| Steven J. Brown posted Amtrak Southwest Chief #4 crossing the Mississippi River between Ft Madison, Iowa and Niota, Illinois - August 24, 2021. Steven J. Brown shared |
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| Matt McClure commented on Steven's share Robert Bruce Newberry: Has to be the Illinois side. |
When I think of this bridge, I think of the truss spans. I didn't realize that the truss spans are only about a third of the bridge until I saw Steven's Amtrak photo. Another third is approach spans and the final third is an earth embankment. I learned from an old aerial photo that the white curved line in the lower-left corner is the remnant of a previous bridge that crossed the river.
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| Satellite |
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| Street View |
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| RiverWorks Discovery posted ARTCO’s M/V Prosperity, navigating the Fort Madison Railroad Bridge at sunset on the Upper Mississippi River. Courtesy of Pilot Jonathan Ray Rodala. Bill Rice: is this done by purely sight or navigational aids? RiverWorks Discovery: Bill Rice All aids to navigation can be used. Eyesight, a potential lookout on the head of the tow, Rosepoint navigational system and radar in the pilothouse. Joel Alderson: Bill Rice you use your aids but it is done best by looking out the window and "adjusting accordingly." |
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| North Lee County Historical Society posted Remember this day when Mississippi River Bridge was stuck in open position for about 18 hours account lead barge lodged on pier blocking swing span. Happened at 6:15 pm Sunday May 15, 1983. Remember a ATSF official arrived by plane and wanted to blowup the barge but Army Corps of Engineers official said he would end up in jail. Quickly tons of grain were pumped into another barge so was able to pull from pier. 2 freight trains and one Amtrak train were detoured over Burlington Northern tracks and 24 other train delayed. Photo in the archives of the North Lee County Historical Society awaiting the tourist season so come visit before the crowd arrives. Open 10-4 Mon-Sat and noon-4 pm Sunday. Debra Martinson: Luke Gladders owned by G.W.Gladders Towboat company. Full of corn pellets. Troy Matter: I remember it well I was working for Hall Towing and we cleaned up the mess. Henry Hill shared John Esser: In 1983 there was no safety unlike today. Helper tugs are the normal these days. A small price for a helper tug vs the cost of the repairs to barge's and bridge. Jim Manley: I was the surveyor on this job. It was a load of bean meal. The top of the coating was underwater but the wet bean meal damned off the water so it didn't sink. Some of the bridge jacking gear wound up on the bow. Don Hall got his equipment going and we lightened the stern and then had to unload the bow to get it off the cell. Good times! W.D. Purcell: I'd like to know where they got a grain pump from. Jim Manley: W.D. Purcell we don't have. A grain pump but we can get Vac-U-Vators. I set two on the dam at Quincy in 93. We had barges laying against the. Dam, sinking slowly. We sucked the grain out, over the top of the dam and blew it into barges below the. Dam. This was done with the hard work of the Canton Towing guys. |
A video of a tow going through the bridge I wondered why the bridge was already open when he was still rather far from it. But then later I see it was probably opened for a upbound tow.
In response to a question about when will this bridge be replaced, John Carson commented on a post:
At one time, before they built the new Burlington railroad bridge, there was a plan to refurbish the Fort Madison bridge with a lift span. According to what was talked about, (and I am sorry but I can't remember where I got this information from), The plan was to build the lift structures to the east of the Swing span. Much like the new Burlington Bridge construction, Two of the stationary spans were to be floated out on barges, and a single new lift span floated into place. The plan was to then to decommission the swing span and bolt it into place. For what ever reason, this was never finalized. I know the Corps Of Engineers likes lift spans for there increased width for barge navigation. They are also less prone to malfunction, easier to maintain and faster than swing bridges. I expect that someday, they will get around to it. Probably after Iowa and Illinois quit arguing and built a highway bridge.
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