Aban/Penn/GR&I and Marantette (Railroad St.) Bridges over St. Joseph River at Mendon, MI

GR&I: (no Bridge Hunter; Historic Bridges; Satellite)

Road: (Archived Bridge Hunter: Bridge Hunter; Historic Bridges; Satellite)

GR&I = Grand Rapids & Indiana

Marantette Road Bridge

2020 photo by Rick McOmber via BridgeHunter
139' (42m)

HistoricBridges_road
"This bridge is an excellent and beautiful example of a pin-connected truss bridge in Michigan. It is noted for its fairly long span length of 139 feet. It also is largely unaltered from its original design and materials. The only thing missing is the builder plaques. The bridge retains a traditional design wooden deck and rests on random rubble type stone abutments. It has been closed to traffic for many years."

After reading about the "random rubble type stone abutments," I better understood why Rick took this photo.

2020 photo by Rick McOmber via BridgeHunter

Aban/Penn/GR&I Railroad Bridge

I can't remember another time when Historic Bridges documented a bridge that Bridge Hunter did not document.

HistoricBridges_GR&I

Both Bridges

Jennifer Woodman posted 15 photos with the comment:

Mendon, MI: The Marantette Bridge and Mendon Railroad Bridge

Two abandoned spans sit side by side on the St. Joseph River here. The Marantette Bridge is a 139-foot steel Pratt through-truss built around 1900 by Ohio's Massillon Bridge Company. It's been closed since 1984 and earned a spot on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001.

Just west, an abandoned steel deck plate girder bridge carries the ghost of the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad over the river. The GR&I was absorbed by the Pennsylvania Railroad, then Penn Central, then Conrail before the branch was abandoned. No National Register of Historic Places honor for this beauty though.

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