1922-54 Abandoned US-51 Bridge over Ramsey Creek near Ramsey, IL

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

Street View, Apr 2018

Event Horizon Photography posted 12 photos with the comment:

Hidden alongside modern U.S. Route 51 north of Vandalia stands a piece of highway history that has been left largely untouched for more than 70 years. The Old U.S. 51 Ramsey Creek Bridge was built in 1924, two years before the U.S. Highway System was officially established. The bridge is a riveted, five-panel Pratt through-truss, with a 100-foot steel main span and concrete approach spans bringing its total length to roughly 300 feet. One of its more unusual features is still visible today: the brick railings incorporated into the concrete approaches. 

When U.S. 51 was designated in 1926, this stretch became part of the highway carrying travelers north and south through central Illinois. For the next three decades, cars and trucks crossed Ramsey Creek through this narrow steel truss. In 1954, U.S. 51 was realigned and a new bridge was constructed immediately to the east. Rather than removing the old bridge, the original roadway and bridge were simply bypassed and abandoned. 

Today, the old pavement is cracked and disappearing beneath grass and brush, the steel has turned deep red with rust, and trees have begun reclaiming a road that once carried one of Illinois’ major highways. Yet the bridge itself remains standing 102 years after it was built. What makes this place especially interesting is that it isn’t a replica or a restored attraction. It’s an actual surviving section of the old highway, essentially frozen in place after traffic moved a few yards away in 1954. For more than seven decades, thousands of motorists have driven past it on U.S. 51 without realizing the road their predecessors traveled is still sitting right beside them.

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HistoricBridges also notes the brick railings.

2017 photo by Steve Conro via BridgeHunter

1975,2024 Sister Cities Y-Bridge over Genesee River in Rochester, NY

(no Bridge Hunter; Satellite)

Looking North. From ground level, it is hard to see the third leg.

Street View, Jun 2025

Looking South.

Street View, May 2025

The bridge was dedicated in 1975 as the culmination of an urban renewal project. These two clippings from BridgesOfTheGeneseeRiver show the buildings along the river that were cleared out for the urban renewal project. The resulting Charles Carroll Plaza on the west side of the river wasn't much more than a concrete slab. As with some plazas in Chicago, this plaza demonstrated that people don't like plazas that basically look like a parking lot. Thus it, and the bridge, were renovated in 2024.

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The triangle in the water was a fountain. It never did work correctly and they soon gave up on it.

Satellite

BridgesOfTheGeneseeRiver
This article also explains why the name of the plaza was changed.

Looking at the satellite image above, the new plaza has some layers. This image shows that the old plaza wasn't much more than a slab.

The plaza renovation cost $20m. The plaza is a roof for an underground parking lot. "Austin Steward was one of Rochester’s first prominent Black business owners, an entrepreneur who not only gained freedom from slavery, but opened a successful business, operated the first school for black children in Rochester, and wrote his memoir, “22 Years a Slave and 40 Years a Freeman.”" (Charles Carroll was a slave owner.) [CityOfRochester]

Google Earth, Jul 2018

So how accurate is this rendering?

CityOfRochester_project

1966 Michael J. Kirwan Dam on Mahoning River

(Satellite)

Michael J. Kirwan Dam & Reservoir posted

"Since its completion in 1966, the Kirwan Reservoir has prevented flood damages estimated to be in excess of $755 million. Kirwan has the capability to store the equivalent run-off of 18.35 inches of precipitation from its 80.5 square mile drainage area. When compared, the $20 million cost of construction is far outweighed by the project’s flood prevention benefits." The dam also helps provide a minimal flow in the Mahoning River. [usace]

USACE, Pittsburgh District posted

Fun bit of history: Michael J. Kirwan Dam & Reservoir wasn’t always Michael J. Kirwan Dam & Reservoir.

This photo from June 8, 1965, shows workers beneath the original West Branch Dam & Reservoir sign, back when the under-construction project was still named for the West Branch Mahoning River it impounds.

Five years later, Congress passed Public Law 91-639 and officially renamed the project for Michael J. Kirwan, a longtime congressman from northeastern Ohio who championed reservoir construction throughout the region.

As our trusty history book, "The Headwaters District: A History of the Pittsburgh District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers" explains:

"Mr. President, you will surely recall crossing the Mahoning River two or three times during your visit to Youngstown's busy steel plants last fall," Congressman Mike Kirwan wrote in his May 1941 letter to Franklin Roosevelt. "The Mahoning River is now at the point of drying up after its flood waters threatened interruption of production in January. That river is 80% sewage, and we are called the 'wonder people of America' because we drink it and it doesn't kill us. I was foreman in a steel plant here for twenty years and can recall sending men to shunt sewage away from the water intakes."

Michael J. Kirwan was appealing to the President, Congress and to anyone who would listen in 1941 for quick action on Mahoning basin water troubles. He declared that repeated flooding interfered with steel mill production, that strong men collapsed from the stench of the polluted stream, and that low water flows hampered national defense. He said steel mills used and reused the Mahoning so many times that both water taps in Youngstown homes delivered hot water, and that ducks never landed on the Mahoning for fear of being cooked alive. People and industry in the Mahoning basin had built Milton and Meander Creek dams without a cent contributed by the Federal Government, though the Mahoning Valley paid more in taxes than some states. Floods and droughts in the Mahoning basin disrupted production of 10% of the nation's steel, essential to any defense program.

"There is only one way to remedy this threatening situation," Kirwan told the President, "and that is by the immediate construction of Berlin and Mosquito Creek dams on the Mahoning and one of its principal tributaries."

The emergency spillway is on the left descending (north) abutment.

Satellite

SP/Northwestern Pacific (NWP) Direct-Lift Bridge over Eureka Slough in Eureka, CA

Swing: (Archived Bridge Hunter; Bridge Hunter; no Historic Bridges)

Lift: (Archived Bridge Hunter; Bridge Hunter; no Historic Bridges; Satellite)

The remnants of the 1916 direct-lift bridge is near the left.

Street View, Jun 2025

RRAdventures posted five photos with the comment: "Northwestern Pacific Railroad - Eureka Slough Lift Bridge."

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An earlier bridge had a swing span.

David Edwards, Mar 2023

The lift for this bridge was a Strauss design. This diagram is for a similar Strobel design.

From Historic Bridges, Source: Journal of the Western Society of Engineers, 1914 via Dennis DeBruler

The north pier is round because it held the former swing span. [ArchivedBridgeHunter_lift]

Was reopened as of Jul 2018 for use by a trail and excursion trains. [BridgeHunter_lift]

Joseph Oliver, Jul 2021

Doug Lee, Jun 2025

The bridge is near the upper-right corner of this map.

1958/59 Eureka Waud @ 24,000

This bridge was near the northern end of the NWP route. Some sources show that Southern Pacific owned this route for a while.

A new NWP was incorporated in 2006 and started freight operations on the part south of Windsor, CA, in 2011. [up]

nwprrhs

1932 Seven Arches (Waller, Hillsboro Road) Bridge over Terre Bleue Creek near bonne Terre, MO

(Archived Bridge Hunter; Bridge Hunter; no Historic Bridges; Satellite)

James Baughn photo via BridgeHunter

John Albert Christeson Jr. posted three photos with the comment: "Seven Arches Bridge in St. Francois County Mo. The bridge is located on Hillsboro Rd. east of Bonne Terre Mo. The bridge is about 100 yds off of Mo. Highway K."

Mitchell Thurman: i grew up near here. this is where i learned to fish.

it has a plaque. ruth e waller saw this bridge built so that kids could go to school during winter.

Rick Wibbenmeyer: Soon to be torn down i believe.

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2018 photo by John Christeson via BridgeHunter

"My grandfather, Charles Blackwell, built this bridge. At the time, a contest was held to name the bridge and my father, Earl Blackwell, won with the name Seven Stone Archway Bridge. The prize was five dollars, a richly sum for a nine year old during the depression. I visited the bridge today and was saddened to see the name Waller Bridge posted on the structure. Also, the bridge has been painted with highway yellow paint. Whoever is responsible for that should be tarred and feathered." [William Blackwell comment on ArchivedBridgeHunter]

2018 photo by John Christeson via BridgeHunter

An interesting combination of steel and concrete beams.

James Baughn photo via BridgeHunter

Napier Bridges over St. Joseph River at Benton Harbor, MI

1870: (Archived Bridge Hunter; Bridge Hunter; no Historic Bridges)

1905: (Archived Bridge Hunter; Bridge Hunter; no Historic Bridges)

1966: (Satellite)

1870

The Herald-Press: May 27 1965 via BridgeHunter_1870
"collapsed due to flooding in March 1904"

1905

The Herald-Press: May 27 1965 via BridgeHunter_1905

Don Lee Aldrich Jr. posted
1910 Blast from the past  Benton Harbor on right side and St. Joe on left.  Notice the train tracks on bottom left that used to run all the way down the river.

Ken Williams: The new bridge was built and finished in 1966 before that bridge was torn down. Major repairs were done in 2022. I did start driving until 1964 but I avoided that bridge as all cost because I wasn't driving a model T that it was designed for.

Thomas Dyer: That’s was the old nyc line that went to Nile’s off of the GR sub.

BridgeHunter_1905 indicates the railroad was the C&O/PM, but this topo map shows Michigan Central. MC became NYC. 

1930/46 Menton Harbor Quad @ 62,500

I think this is the first time that I have seen a mistake in Bridge Hunter concerning a railroad. But Thomas' comment above and this map confirm it was NYC/MC instead of C&O/Pere Marquette.

rail.guide

c1966

It looks like today's bridge is a steel-girder bridge.

Kevin Birdsall, Oct 2025