Gateway Overpass: (Bridge Hunter; Satellite)
1881 Pere Marquette: (Bridge Hunter)
1914 Pere Marquette: (Bridge Hunter; Satellite)
While studying the GTW depot in Ionia, I discovered that they have some non-trivial trail bridges. The former GTW right-of-way is now the Fred Meijer Grand River Valley Trail, and the former Pere Marquette RoW is now the Ionia River Trail. Both of the railroad bridges go over the Grand River. Some significant money was put into the trail system around Ionia.
GTW Bridge:
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| Edward Gross, Dec 2015 |
2015 Gateway Overpass:
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| Street View, Aug 2023 |
1881 PM:
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| BridgeHunter_1881 [It is not obvious in this photo, but it is obvious in the photo below that they added new piers between the existing piers because the steel girder spans are shorter than the truss spans. I'm still trying to figure out how they added the steel girders under the trusses, but in this photo they are removing the trusses since the girders are now carrying the tracks. As expected given the 1881 date, the trusses appear to be pin connected.] |
1914 PM:
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| Pamala Thurber, Apr 2021 |
The Gateway Overpass is a tied arch. It was probably built offsite and then moved to the abutments to minimize the closure of the state highway. Not only did they build a new bridge, they built the embankments needed to create an overpass. Here is a view back when the trail crossed at grade level.
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| Street View, Oct 2013 |
The GTW bridge is on the west side and the PM bridge is on the east side.
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| Dennis DeBruler |
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