Replacement: (Archived Bridge Hunter; Satellite)
MKT = Missouri-Kansas-Texas (Katy)
OK&T = Oklahoma, Kansas & Texas It operated the route between Dallas and Salina, KS.
Charlene Hagen posted two photos with the comment: "Dover, Oklahoma achieved notoriety on September 18, 1906, when the Cimarron River bridge collapsed, allowing Rock Island Number 12, a passenger train, to crash into the waters below. The loss of life, at least one hundred, made this one of the nation's worst train wrecks**. There are numerous conflicting reports however, with some stating only 4 people perished in this accident, but we will never know the true number. The engine is still under there to this day."
David Heinrichs: According to what I heard overloaded train with quite a few families on it. There was something sticking out that was on the train that caught the bridge support causing the bridge to collapse. The train is still there sunk down in like quick sand. Guy from Dover my age said you could swim down and touch and see the train.
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| Street View, Oct 2025 |
The Rock Island bridge was a "temporary" bridge built in 1898 to replace a wood trestle that was wrecked when heavy rains shifted the sandy river bottom. "Eight years later, the temporary bridge was still there. So was Dover, and its residents had spent nearly all of the intervening years demanding that the Rock Island replace their bridged with something built to last, something that would be safer because it would rest atop piles driven under the water, through the sand, and deep into bedrock. But . . . nothing happened until 1906." [okielegacy]
I presume that is the collapsed wood trestle in the background of this newspaper photo.
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| ODOTdatabase |
Oklahoman explains why UP sued a contractor to leave the locomotive in the sandy river bottom.
I could not find anything on what replaced the 1906 trestle nor when today's steel-girder bridge was built.
Bonus
There is a 1921 truss bridge preserved about a couple miles west of Dover.
The bridge is 800' (244m) long because of a large floodplain on the south side. I picked this view to emphasize the floodplain. And the trusses are pin connected.
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| Street View, Sep 2023 |
It looks like it has its original railings.
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| Street View, Sep 2023 |
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