1940 Centennial Bridge over Mississippi River at Rock Island, IL

(Bridge Hunter; Historic Bridges; John A. Weeks III; HAER; 3D Satellite)

John Weeks III

I was surprised to see the date of 1940. This bridge looks much newer than that. "The bridge was the first tied-arch span and the first 4-lane bridge across the Mississippi River....A 1998 study of the quad cities bridges found that the I-74 bridges were vastly over capacity while the Centennial bridge was underused, mainly due to the tolls. An agreement was worked out in late 2001 where the bridge would be transferred from the bridge commission to being owned jointly by the two states....The bridge was officially transferred to state ownership on July 13, 2005. The study turned out to be accurate. Late 1990s traffic of 16,000 vehicles per day grew almost overnight to 31,000 vehicles per day before the end of 2005." [John Weeks III]

I wasn't even going to look in Historic Bridges until I saw the date. ''It has five spans. From north to south there are two 395 foot arch spans, two 538 foot arch spans, and one 395 foot arch span." [Historic Bridges]

Photo from HAER IOWA,82-DAVPO,8--4 from ia0449

3/4 VIEW FROM SOUTHWEST - Centennial Bridge, Spanning Mississippi River at U.S. Highway 61, Davenport, Scott County, IA

HAER-data describes the bridges built before this one in the Quad Cities area. Then it has quite a bit of detail concerning this bridge. A tied-arch span requires frequent piers. But a firm bedrock was shallow in this area, so the piers were relatively cheap. The HAER reference indicates the foundation was either hard shale or clay that was so solid a spread foundation could be built on it without the use of H-piles. Another reference described the foundation as blue shale or limestone. HAER states that sheet piles were used to build cofferdams so that the piers were built in a dry riverbed. The shallow bedrock also allowed economic falsework to be used for the construction of the arches.

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

2 of several photos posted by Retro Quad Cities.

a

b

Jan Danielsen posted
Andrew Cannava Northbound heading to lock 15 Rock Island, Illinois. Going past Crescent Railroad bridge and Centennial Bridge. Pictures taken from Davenport, Iowa. River pool 16.

 

1 of 4 photos posted by Jess Mumma, cropped
Baxter Southern cruising upstream under the Centennial Bridge toward L/D 15

Iowa Road Trip posted

The Centennial Bridge from Riverview Terrance Park in Davenport, Iowa 

The Centennial Bridge, which opened in 1940, is the first four-lane highway bridge over the Mississippi River. It connects Rock Island, Illinois, and Davenport, Iowa. The bridge's design, featuring five steel arches, is also an iconic symbol of the Quad Cities.

Riverview Terrance Park is located at 1400 Clay St, Davenport, Iowa.  Brian Abeling / Iowa Road Trip

Denise Kellums Greer posted
Out for a walk and s saw this beautiful flooded Mississippi sunset. Thought I'd share it with ya!
[Taken from Schwiebert Riverfront Park]

Photo taken by David Sebben
December 15, 1939 view from Illinois looking to Iowa
[You can tell this is a pioneering tied-arch bridge because they are using falsework and building it over the water rather than the current technique of building a span on barges and then floating it under the bridge and raising it into position.]

Retro Quad Cities posted
1939 Centennial Bridge Construction viewing towards Rock Island
Bob Nolen: Notice how the waterfront in Rock Island there is not a retaining wall?
Retro Quad Cities shared

Jan Danielsen posted
James F. Neal coming up river. The goose photobombed the picture. Davenport, Iowa.
[The swing span for the BNSF/CP Crescent Bridge is still open to allow the tow to pass.]

Julie Fogler posted
This picture was taken by my son-in-law on his way home from work. The Sun rise, and Centennial Bridge.

Chuck Holst posted

 

Retro Quad Cities posted
Beth Dorr: What year was that?
Mitchell Pilon: Beth Dorr '69.

I got a view with the approach to confirm that the above photo is of this bridge.

Street View, Aug 2023

It is interesting to see the different river levels.

Street View, Aug 2016

 

Retro Quad Cities posted
We take it for granted now, but when the Centennial Bridge opened in 1940, it didn't have the cloverleaf loops for exiting/entering the bridge. This photo shows them being built on the Illinois side in 1960....20 years later.
Retro Quad Cities shared

It appears that the two DOTs (Iowa and Illinois) do not limit their poor maintenance to truss bridges. Or they maintain the deck, which the public sees, but don't maintain what holds the bridge up.

Inspection report (as of July 2015)

Overall condition: Poor
Superstructure condition rating: Serious (3 out of 9)
Substructure condition rating: Fair (5 out of 9)
Deck condition rating: Good (7 out of 9)
Sufficiency rating: 10.8 (out of 100)

[Bridge Hunter]