CSX/Rock Island/Big4/K&S Bridge over Illinois River at Seneca, IL

Birds Eye View, Bing pulled the plug on this map
 so here is a Satellite View

(Bridge Hunter, no Historic Bridges, John Weeks III, John Marvig)

It carried the Kankakee & Seneca Railroad over the Illinois River.

As John Weeks III mentions, trespassing signs prevent getting good pictures from land. I noticed that the No Trespassing signs on the north side of the river state that violators will be prosecuted. Fortunately, The Bridge Hunter collection of pictures includes some that Steve Conro was able to get from the south side. Since I'm not going to do any better photos than John and Steve did on the ground, I found some satellite and aerial views.

1940 Aerial Photo from ILHAP

Photo from Facebook

According to comments in the reference in the picture's caption, this original bridge was wooden, and it was replaced by a steel truss bridge in 1910. The existing bridge would have been built as part of the 1930s 9-foot navigation channel project.

Kankakee and Seneca Railroad Company posted

On August 18th, 1916 a westbound K&S train started across the southern span of the Illinois River bridge in Seneca. When the locomotive cleared the span it gave way derailing the locomotive's tender but the first four cars went down with the bridge span. There were no injuries but an EJ&E gondola, a CRI&P automobile boxcar, a CNO&TP boxcar, and one unknown boxcar were severely damaged.

The train was lead by CCC&STL 6221, a 4-6-0 built in 1892 by ALCO's Richmond Works.

Special thanks to the Seneca Historical Guild for the photograph.

I repeat the photo because this one has better resolution.

Josh Biggers posted

On August 18, 1916 a westbound Kankakee and Seneca train lead by CCC&STL 6221 started across the Illinois River bridge just outside Seneca, IL. 

The locomotive just cleared the southern span before it gave out sending 3 cars into the river. All together 5 cars derailed and no injuries apart from a hard stop. 

The bridge was reopened soon after with the southern span being replaced with an open girder type. This bridge is still in use by CSX to service DuPont south of Seneca.

Kankakee and Seneca Railroad Company posted
 I would like to share with you a photo of the Illinois river bridge in Seneca from 1910. Now, what’s interesting about this photo is it’s the only photo I was able to find of the bridge in its original state prior to the collapse/derailment in 1916. The span that collapsed would be the far right span in the photo.

Satellite

This bridge serves just one industry. It used to be a DuPont explosives plant. Looking at the satellite, I see H.B. Fuller is using this plant area. I didn't think they used rail service because the track is so heavily tree covered. But I did find railcars at the plant in a satellite image. I saved the image because who know what will appear after Google updates the images. Bing's aerial view shows about the same number of cars but it is a different image because the cars are positioned a little differently.

Dustin Weibrecht posted, cropped
Seneca RR Bridge

The comments on this posting provide some insight into how the New Rock operates.

12 photos