1907 Trail/Interurban Bridge over Cedar Creek in Cedarburg, WI

(Bridge Hunter broke Mar 22, 2023; no Historic Bridges; 3D Satellite)

Mark Koenig posted three photos with the comment: "Our treasured Interurban Bridge crossing Cedar Creek in Cedarburg Wisconsin.  Once servicing the electric Interurban from Milwaukee to Sheboygan, it is now a footbridge and part of a rails to trails bike path."

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The Carnegie mill mark means that these beams were rolled before 1901 when US Steel absorbed Carnegie Steel.

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Mark Koenig commented on his post
Another gem from the same bridge… Phoenix Iron Company

Scott Greig commented on Mark's post
From its last month of rail service, March of 1948.
[This view confirms that the bridge is pin connected.]

Mark Koenig commented on his post, cropped
The story…

ozaukee

2 of 20 photos submitted to TripAdvisor    The gallery included several photos of the bridge.

a
[This shows a significant financial investment in the trail.]

b
[The building in the background caught my eye.]

The building in the background of the above photo is now the Landmark Feed Seed & Supply, a pet supply store. I found the Cedarburg History Museum while looking for this building.

Street View, Sep 2022

I noticed the walkway on the north side of the bridge on a satellite image. My research to find its purpose failed. Is it intended to be a fishing pier?

InterurbanTrail

Photo via InterurbanTrail_photos

The interubran railway ceased operation in 1951. [InterurbanTrail_about]

LaGrange Lock and Dam on Illinois River

(John A. Weeks III; Satellite)

This is the last dam before the river joins the Mississippi 80 miles further downstream.

This aerial photo shows the dam with the wicket gates in the down position. The other wicket-gate dam on the Illinois River is the Peoria Lock and Dam. Hopefully, those notes explain that the gates are down when the river level is high and that they are raised when the river level is low.

USACE

A satellite image caught the dam with the gates in the raised position. It also caught a double locking operation in progress.

Satellite

Zooming in, we see the tender that raises and lowers the gates. It is moored by the Tainter gate that is used to control the river level.

Satellite

An aerial view of a double locking and rthe aised wicket gates.

ICE

JohnWeeks

 

Massman Construction Co. posted three photos with the comment:

Nearly 90 years ago, Massman Construction began construction on La Grange Lock and Dam. Located on the Illinois River as a navigation route between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River, the facility opened in 1939. The first photo is a view of work inside of the cofferdam. The second photo is from the same viewpoint in 2007. Today, La Grange sees thousands of vessels lock through.

La Grange Lock and Dam was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2004 and is still operated today by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Rock Island District . 

Photos: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Rock Island District, United States Library of Congress HAER Collection, and #marinasdotcom

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"Significance: La Grange Lock and Dam is significant as a component of the Illinois Waterway, which was developed to provide a navigable route from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi River and beyond. La Grange Dam is significant as one of the few surviving examples of a dam with Chanoine wicket gates in this country." [HAER_data]

HAER, part 1

HAER, part 2

Tracy Brasel posted
Lagrange locks

Comments on Tracy's post

Kyle Perry commented on Tracy's post
Now that’s a wicket lifter

 

Typically, in the Spring the river runs high and the wicket gates are down.

Google Earth, Mar 2005

And in the late Summer the river is low and the gates are up.

Google Earth, Sep 2005

And some years it floods and putting the gates down does not provide enough flow.

Google Earth, Apr 1998

USACE, RI District posted

The countdown is on! The 2023 Consolidated Lock Closures on the Illinois Waterway are scheduled to begin in one month! On June 1, the locks at Brandon Road, Dresden Island and Marseilles will fully close to river traffic for much needed maintenance.

Click here to find out more information about the closures and the timeline:   https://www.mvr.usace.army.mil/Missions/Navigation/Navigation-Status/

(Note: This photo was taken at LaGrange Lock and Dam during the 2020 Illinois Waterway Consolidated Closures.)

Fort Loudoun Lock shared
If you are planning a trip that includes traveling up the Illinois River/Illinois Waterway in the near future, then please check the consolidated lock closures that are set to commence on June 1st in just one month!

I was surprised that they never did get rid of all of the water from the lock. When I see photos of the dewatered locks on the Upper Mississippi or the Soo Locks, the bottom of the lock is dry. But then I remembered that this lock is open 365 days of the year. That is, it is not regularly dewatered during the Winter season.

2:58 video @ 0:52

enr [paycount], photo courtesy of AECOM Shimmick
The project cost $117m.
"Heavy equipment within the tight footprint of the riverside lock and dam included a 300-ton crane on the land side, a 300-ton crane upstream and a 300-ton crane downstream of the bulkheads and the lock. A 150-ton crane was located on a barge outside of the riverside wall and two 60-ton cranes down in the chamber. On the land wall there were two 130-ton cranes and another 60-ton crane. These cranes were used to place the lock armor as well as new concrete for the lock walls, which the cranes placed using buckets."

Since this lock is next to a wicket dam, you know that the river level varies a lot during the year. That is, the lock getting flooded is the norm rather than the exception.

Specifically, "the LaGrange Lock and Dam is unique. When the Illinois River rises above normal pool elevation, the entire lock and dam goes underwater. This happens regularly and can sometimes go underwater to a depth of 14 FT, where towboat traffic can navigate over the top." This is why this dam uses hydraulic, instead of electric, equipment to operate the gates and Tainter valves. [Brennan]

enr [paycount], photo courtesy of AECOM Shimmick
"The 1939 lock and dam’s concrete had deteriorated so much that grass was growing through it."

jfbrennan
They used several 10" electrical pumps to dewater the lock chamber.

While Shimmik resurfaced the concrete on the interior, Brennan resurfaced the exterior. Since the exterior wall is still under water when the chamber is dewatered, they designed custom box-type cofferdams to facilitate the replacement of 18" of wall concrete and steel armor plating.

jfbrennan

Note the seals on three edges of this Tainter gate. This gate is one of the four valves that control the flow in to and out of the chamber.

jfbrennan

Dam construction is one of the specialities of Brennan.

This content was copied from a redundant La Grange Dam post.

Satellite

Pages 2 and 3 of the March 30, 2017 USDA Grain Transportation report (source link) indicates the locks will be closed 10 hours each day between June and August. Fortunately, this is a low season for soybeans and corn shipments during this period.

Note that the report indicates that about a third of the grain for Lock 26 on the Mississippi comes from the Illinois Waterway and about two-thirds comes from the upper Mississippi River.

This is a wicket dam and this satellite image indicates the river flow is low because the gates are up. I assume the barge parked next to the Tainter gate is the tender that is used to raise and lower the gates.

One of John's photos shows the gates were also up when he visited. And it includes a view of the tender.

John A. Weeks III

Satellite

I checked Bing's satellite image to see if the gates were down. They were not. That image was also taken during low river levels.

The additional barges and towboats are of interest. Given all of the pickup trucks along the lock entrance (workers), it appears they are doing some maintenance. It just occurred to me that they don't have to wait until night for "off hours" because towboat crews work around the clock. They can do maintenance during the day without changing the impact on the barge traffic.

1892 Wells Street Viaduct for streetcars in Milwauke, WI

(Satellite)

While researching the Wells Street Bridge in Milwaukee, I came across some photos of a trestle.

MilwaukeeMag, Photo courtesy of the Milwaukee County Historical Society
It was built in 1892 and reached 100' above the valley floor. The last streetcar passed over it in 1958, and it was scrapped for the steel in 1962.

I followed Wells Street west of the Milwaukee River on a satellite map. The land looked flat until I got here. The Menomone River made a lot bigger gouge in the land than any of the rivers that I'm familiar with in Chicagoland. This view of the Menomone valley includes the Wisconsin Avenue  bridge.

Street View, Aug 2021

I'm suprised this 1958 topo map doesn't show the trestle. Even if the trestle was demolished in 1958 per this source, I would expect to see a connection between east and west Wells Street on this map. The map does show a bunch of topo lines bunched together north of Wisconsin Ave. and east of 39th St. There is a thick tree line on a satellite map showing the location of this bluff. 

1958 Milwaukee Quad @ 24,000

UrbanMilwaukee, Photo courtesy of Carl A. Swanson
"For 60 years streetcars rattled across the 2,085-foot-long bridge, 90 feet above the Menomonee River Valley."
[This web page has an additional postcard image and a history of the viaduct.]

The resolution of this aerial photo is not good, but it is good enough to show that the trestle was still standing in May 1958.

EarthExplorer: May 21, 1958 @ 66,000; ARA001610121436

?,?,1985 US-18 Wells Street Bridge over Milwaukee River in Milwaukee, WI

(Bridge Hunter broke Mar 22, 2023; Satellite)

Street View, Aug 2017

It looks like there is another power plant in the background to the right of the big smokestack.

Paul Rabenhorst posted
A large freighter is towed through the open Wells Street bridge on the Milwaukee River. The Milwaukee Electric Company, now the Milwaukee Repertory Theater, is on the right.
Milwaukee, 1937.
Dan Roadt: What was north of this location that would need a ship?
Bob Schoultz: Dan Roadt Just a guess but I would say either a grain or cement freighter
 whatever it was, it is riding high so it is empty
Chuck Westerman: Dan Roadt Coal yards.
Cheryl Ann: These ships were still being towed on the river late 50's.
Jake Jakoubek: I spent fall '66 through spring '79 in Milwaukee living more or less downtown and never once saw those bridges lift. Disappointed but only in retrospect.
Chuck Westerman: Back in the early 1970's a friend and I saw the Wisconsin Ave. bridge about to go up and decided to ride up with it. Had to hang on tight to the railing, but managed to go up and down without falling. A cop had been called by the other pedestrians and was waiting for us. Gave us a stern lecture but couldn't think of any law we broke.
Paul Rabenhorst shared

414 Milwaukee Mil Town posted

"TIGHT SQUEEZE".  Two steam tugs tow lake freighter ANGELINE backwards & downstream in the Milwaukee River through the opened Wells Street Bridge in downtown Milwaukee, April 8, 1937.  Tug in foreground is W.H. MEYER.

Note the Milwaukee Electric Railway & Light building at right, now home of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater Company, adjacent to the Pabst Theater.  Photo:  Milwaukee Public Library/ Wis. Marine Historical Society.

Sue Skustad: See the little house bottom left of this picture, my dad worked in this building as a bridge tender. The bridge was maned 24/7. The men had 8 hour shifts. All automated now. He retired 1970.

Nick Doney: Sue Skustad it isn’t automated, there are a number of in-person bridge operators on the river who communicate with boats below. Often the bridge operators work more than one bridge at a time though, using cameras and remote controls.

Adam Kelnhofer: Sue Skustad This story has some good background info on how the Milwaukee bridges are managed: https://www.jsonline.com/.../what-we-know.../7875058001/

That power plant now has four theaters.

3D Satellite
"Performing arts venue with 4 theaters including a 2,300-seat hall & an intimate outdoor stage."

This crossing has had at least three bridges.

pinterest, 1905

OnMilwaukee
It reopened Nov 30, 2018, after being closed nine months for rehabilitation. This bridge was built in 1985.

The rehabilitation added "bike plates" and railings between the sidewalk and traffic lanes.

Street View, Nov 2022

benesch
"The [rehabilitation] project replaced several mechanical, electrical and hydraulic components, in addition to bridge control system upgrades which allow for remote operation. Roadway approaches were reconstructed and sidewalks and curb ramps were replaced to meet ADA compliance standards....Virtually every structural component of the project required customized design and fabrication methods in order to properly size, fit and install rehabilitated structural machinery. An innovative process for machining and modifying certain elements, rather than replacing them with new parts, reduced potential costs and production lead times."

CSX/B&O Stone Arch Overpass over Western Maryland Scenic Railroad in Cumberland, MD

(Satellite)

I don't normally document overpasses, but they are not normally made of stone either. This view caught a CSX train. The overpass is part of a bridge over the heavily channelized Wills Creek.

Street View, Jul 2023

And this view caught a Western Maryland Scenic Railroad train.

Street View, Sep 2019

And this view caught both.

Joe Tonkin posted
This past Saturday, 3/22/25, my son and I rode the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad. On the way back down, we were lucky enough to ride in the cab. Before approaching the station, there was a freight on the B&O Viaduct heading towards Grafton. From what I understand, this was an extremely rare event. I was lucky enough to grab a picture from the cab of WMSR 558.
Randall Hampton shared

This photo has been moved to "Cumberland Narrows Mountain Scene in 1970."