1933,1988 Rudy Minarcin Bridge over Kiskiminetas River at Vandergrift, PA

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

Jackson-Township historical preservation posted
Bridge partially under water at the town of Vandergrift, Westmoreland County during the Great Flood of 1936.

It was this pier that was under water.

Street View, Jun 2025

Kudos to PennDOT for maintaining a truss bridge.

Street View, Jun 2025

BridgeHunter
The span is 311' (95m) long. The bridge was built in 1933 and rehabilitated in 1988.

Some comments indicate that the water was as high as the roof at Niki's. If the store was down by the stop light, I could easily believe it. But this store is up on a hill.

Street View, Jun 2025

The steel mill has a couple of contour lines between it and the river so hopefully the river level didn't reach it. It also shows that North Vandergrift is in a flood plain.

1953/55 Vandergrift Quad @ 24,000

In fact, this view shows that the mill is on a bluff. The bridge in the left background is the subject of these notes.

Andrew Stewart posted via Dennis DeBruler

Aban/DL&W Old Road Bridge over Delaware River near Delaware, NJ

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

The bridge was replaced by the DL&W Cut-Off Bridge, which is now also abandoned.

Comment on Eugene's post below

Eugene Powell posted
Erie Lackawanna RR locomotive # 1932 hauls an Eastbound Freight over the Old Road Bridge ( Over the Delaware River), New Jersey Photo Taken: June 26, 1965 Photo: Victor Hand A Time Capsule view. ( Tuesday's Flashback)

Wikipedia via BridgeHunter

1956/56 Newark Quad @ 250,000

Erie Canal Locks #55 and #56 and Aqueduct over Ganargua Creek near Lyons, NY

55: (Satellite, [AmericanCanalSociety, a popup says this location was for both the original and enlarged locks.])

Aqueduct: (Satellite, east abutment)

56: (Satellite)

Erie Canal Overview

Lock #55

Lock #55 was very close to Barge Canal Lock #27.

Since it has two chambers, this is the enlarged canal lock. Also, it is late enough in the 1800s that one of the chambers has been lengthened. It is unusual to lengthen them on the upstream side because that requires more excavation.

Hudson River Lightkeeper posted
Canal Favorites - Lock 55 in Lyons, NY

This strikes me as a better colorization.

ErieCanal

A downstream view that emphasises that the chamber was lengthened on the upstream side.

ErieCanal

.

Aqueduct over Ganargua Creek

ErieCanal

The remnants of the east and west ends of the aqueduct based on some photos in ErieCanal_aqueduct.

Street View, Nov 2023

ErieCanal_aqueduct, there are more photos of the aqueduct on this webpage
Aerial view of Stephens' Marina in 1965(?), with the Lyons Aqueduct on the right.

.

Lock #56

Fortunately, someone is keeping the vegetation under control at this lock. Again, I'm surprised that it was the northern chamber that was lengthened because most locks enlarged the south chamber to expedite the handling of heavy 250-ton barges loaded with grain that were eastbound.

Satellite

We are looking at the eastern end of the lock. The northern chamber in the background would be twice the length of the southern chamber. The groves in the stone in the extreme foreground are for the hinge that held the miter gate.

L Lachnicht, Jun 2021

On the left is a preserved store and on the right we see the end of the south chamber and the south wall of the north chamber.

Street View, Nov 2023

ErieCanal_56, there are several more photos of the lock on that webpage

This view of the south chamber clearly shows the notches in the walls that held the gates when they were open.

ErieCanal_56

US-20 emergency replacement of bridge over Twenty Mile Creek near North East, PA

(Satellite, didn't look in Bridge Hunter or Historic Bridges because these are UCEB (Ugly Concrete Eye Sore) bridges.)

US-20 Overview 

dot
This 1973 bridge "was closed to traffic in February 2024 following a design analysis of the structure."
It took just a little over a year to build the replacement: Sep 3, 2024, to Oct 17, 2025. But it took over a half year after the closure to start construction. Average annual usage is 2,500, and federal taxpayers helped pay for the $9,614,010 cost.

From this view, I thought it was a concrete girder bridge, but the above view clearly shows the steel girders.

Street View, Apr 2024

Facebook Reel
The provided URL is the dot link above. Obviously, this bridge also uses steel girders. The culvert in the middle of the view is under the CSX/NYC tracks.

Portland & Western train derails on Wood Trestle over Olalla Slough in Toledo, OR

P&W/SP: (Satellite)

1936 Original US-20 Bridge: (Archived Bridge Hunter; Bridge Hunter; no Historic Bridges; Satellite)

Logging Railroads of the Pacific Northwest posted
Thought some of you would find this interesting. Near Toledo Oregon a day ago [Jan 21, 2026]. Portland & Western services the Georgia-Pacific mill there.

Leaf Jess Norick: Traves A Allen probably was inspected by the same inspector who passed the burned out trestle next to Avery Park in Corvallis.... the one that later collapsed under the weight of a train hauling chemical fertilizer, dumping craptons of it into Mary's River.

Bob Davidson: Leaf Jess Norick It was a broken rail just before the bridge, not a bridge failure.

Engines were dragged onto the bridge before it could come to a stop.

Nick Miller: From what I understand it was a failure in the ties. The underlying structure will be okay and they’ll be able to put the rail back.

Jeremy Taylor: They derailed beforehand and dragged it on the bridge. Most of what you see "collapsed" or hanging off is the walkway. The slug is dangling though.

J.B. Rail Photo posted

Wow that's crazy!!!

Jan 21-28: This screenshot was from Jan 28.

3:41 video @ 3:21
Timelapse: Crews work to free 3 locomotives stranded on Oregon trestle

Jan 30, 2026:

Oregon Coast Explored posted

A week after a Portland & Western Railroad train ran off its rails while crossing a wooden bridge over a small river in Toledo is now cleared. 

The train was headed from Toledo to Albany in the early morning hours of Jan. 21, when it derailed on the trestle over Olalla Slough.

The cause of the derailment was a broken rail. 

📷 Steve's Drone Videos

Another article based on the 3:41 video above.

OregonLive

This ends on Jan 28 because that is when Steve's 3:41 video ends. Casey estimates that it will take another week to remove the locomotives, but it took just another day.

7:30 video @ 0:07
Casey Jones - Professional Engineer

Jan 30: 

1 of 5 photos and 7 videos posted by Steve's Drone Videos with the comment: "The day after the removal of the engines from the trestle!"

52 photos and videos

Unfortunately, Steve got every day except Jan 29, the day the locomotives were removed. Fortunately, 7idea Productions caught that action. At the end he provides links to his two other videos about this incident. The first one is mostly a railfan video. The second one shows the pile driving done to create the temporary bridge.

11:47 video @ 4:05
Back on the Rail [Toledo Derailment Update]

Facebook Reel

1936 US-20 Wood Bridge over West Olalla Slough in Toledo, OR

While looking for the P&W bridge, I noticed that US-20 used to go through this town. In fact, according to BridgeHunter_1936, the original route still has a wood bridge over the West Olalla Slough.

NYC/LS&MS, US-20 and OH-2 Routes over Grand River at Painesville, OH

1856 NYC: (Archived Bridge Hunter; Bridge Hunter)

1908 NYC: (Archived Bridge Hunter; Bridge Hunter, no Historic Bridges; Satellite)

US-20: (Satellite)

OH-2: (Satellite)

US-20 Overview 

The 1856 bridge was a stone bridge.

John W. Barriger III National Railroad Library Flickr, cropped via BridgeHunter_1856

This is the full image from which the above was cropped.

John W. Barriger III National Railroad Library Flickr via BridgeHunter_1856

This is a better view of the covered bridge for the road that goes under the bridge abutment. I presume this road was the predecessor for US-20

Public Domain via BridgeHunter_1856

Actually, that road also continued East, so the road to the East was probably the original route. A 1960 topo map doesn't show OH-2, but a 1970 map does show it in purple. Purple means that it was a change in the map.

1904/1962 Chardon Quad @ 62,500

The replacement NYC bridge has much longer arches and is an open spandrel.

Public Domain via BridgeHunter_1906

This view of the NYC bridge is from US-20, and we can see the OH-2 bridge under the arch. OH-2 appears to be a steel-girder bridge.

Street View, Oct 2021

And here we see US-20 from OH-2. It is also a steel-girder bridge.

Street View, May 2019

Brian Jules posted five photos with the comment: "Painsville, Ohio with the 1908 Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway bridge.(currently CSX) Concrete open spandrel arch bridge spans the Grand River at 350ft long and 100 ft tall. Small additional pedestrian tunnel on the eastern side. I grew up in Berea playing in the spandrels of the same style bridge and I’m sure it’s the same builder but this bridge is massive!"

1
[That would be US-20 in the background.]

2

3

4

5

Michael Cefaratti commented on Brian's post
Love my town of Painesville, Ohio

US-20 was closed and then opened with one lane for several months in 2023 to replace the deck.

news-herald

More photos of the three bridges and the tunnel are available at johngwalter.

1952 52mw Thurmond/Clark Hill and 1984 300mw Russell Dams on Savannah River

Thurmond: (Satellite)

Russell: (Satellite)

The other USACE dam on the Savannah River is the Hartwell Dam.

Thurmond/Clark Hill Dam

Street View, Feb 2024

Street View, Feb 2024

The concrete part straight ahead is the powerhouse.

Street View, Feb 2024

USACE
"Thurmond Dam is a concrete-gravity structure flanked on both sides by embankments of compacted earth. The concrete section is 1,096 feet [334m] long and rises 200 feet [61m] above the riverbed at its highest point. The earthen embankments on each side of the dam lengthen it to over 1 mile. The dam creates a 71,100-acre lake that stretches 29.4 miles up the Savannah River and 17 miles up the Little River."
The seven generators have a capacity of 52mw.

USACE
The penstocks are 20' (6.1m) in diameter. The 1,096' (334m) long spillway has a capacity of 1,000,000cfs "with the gates completely open." (That is heavy flow. I wonder if the river can handle it. I did see a footnote of "Top of Augusta Levee," but I could not find what that footnote is flagging.

The dam does have significant earthen embankments, so it is important that the spillway can pass all of the flood waters.

Chris Powers, Dec 2022

André Tzschupke, Apr 2019

The dam has a large Visitor Center.

NPH Prod., May 2025

News 12 26 Augusta posted

Army Corps declares drought level 2 for Lake Thurmond

🔗: https://www.wrdw.com/.../army-corps-declares-drought.../ [I'll save you from watching an ad: I confirmed that the video has no more information than is in the text.]

Google Search AI Results

I could not find the normal generation flow. On Dec 5, 2025, Level 1 Drought was triggered and the flow was reduced to 4,200cfs at Thurmond Dam. Level 2 is reducing the flow to 4,000cfs. And they plan to go down to 3,800cfs on Feb 1, 2025. "Corps officials urge boaters to use extreme caution when at the lakes. Rocks and tree stumps, normally deep underwater, are closer to the surface, some just out of sight, especially in coves and along the shoreline. Boaters should use the main channel whenever possible. All visitors should wear a life jacket whenever in, on or near the water." [USACE_drought]

The above WRDW news release also talked about boating hazards. It seams to me that reducing the flow out of a dam would keep more water in the reservoir. Did the corps officials mean the river level downstream of Thurmond instead of the reservoirs?

Russell Dam

USACE Flickr Album

USACE
Just four of the units are generators; the other four units are pumps. "The four pump back units at Russell Dam are different than regular generators in that at night, when electrical power demands are low, they can operate in reverse direction to pump water from below the dam back upstream into Russell Lake. Then, the next day when peak power demand occurs, the additional water that has been stored overnight can be used to generate electricity. The Richard B. Russell Project’s pumpback capability is even more critical in periods of drought when the additional peaking capacity afforded by pumpback operation can mitigate capacity shortfalls at other projects."

I wondered where the pumps were getting their water. This satellite image answers that question. The powerhouse spills into Thurmond Lake rather than the Savannah River. The lake would be deeper than a river at the toe of the dam, thus it can supply the water needed to pump back up into Russell Lake.

Satellite