Santa Fe Bridge over Missouri River near Sibley, MO

(Bridge Hunter; no Historic Bridges, Nathan contributed to Bridge Hunter; Satellite)

Marty Bernard shared a Roger Puta Photo
AT&SF Bridge on the Transcon over the Missouri River at Sibley, MO. Roger Puta shot it in August 1983.

Marty also shared
Alfred Lynch Is this crossing still single tracked?
Jeffrey Schmitt Alfred Lynch yes
Alfred Lynch Jeffrey Schmitt thank you, back in 1994, I was taking Amtrak to Chicago and an ATSF employee told me the Railway had plans to build a second bridge at that location. With all the upgrades BNSF has done with mainline. I thought that second bridge would be a priority.
Tom Rigg I can remember walking out on the bridge as one of the midnight shift special agents for Santa Fe and BNSF after train crews reported kids on the bridge during the weekends. Not a pleasant walk in the dark, but something we had to do. I always contacted the dispatcher to let him know I was on the bridge, and then when I was off. I also gave him my trespassers count. The most I ever removed at one time was 15.

Jeffrey Schmitt That bridge is really high above river and scary to walk across or when had to work on track
[Roger was so close that you can't see how high the truss goes above this portal.]

John Rost posted
548 at Sibley Missouri crossing the Missouri River Bridge. With a double track mainline this was a nice bottleneck which almost always meant constant traffic with one train waiting for another.
Alfred Lynch That bridge is massive. I went to it one time and got two west bound trains crossing. It is strange that the railroad replaced large structures at Canyon Diablo and Topock, AZ and they didn't double track this location. Over the years this bridge has been a major impediment to traffic.

Bill Kapprel posted
Now it's May, 1940 and the Santa Fe has assigned #11 an E3A built one year earlier, to the Kansas Cityan -Chicagoan. Pictured is a westbound train #11, the Kansas Cityan shown crossing the Missouri River near Sibley, MO which is about 30 minutes from KC Union Station. My dad's photo is marked that some portion of this train continued to Oklahoma City at the time. Eventually, there was a Tulsa and Ft. Worth further service extension. 
Photo: Frank Kapprel

Dennis Hukill: Very nice. Is that bridge now used by Amtrak for Super Chief from Chi-Los Angeles?

Bill Kapprel: Dennis Hukill yes, I drove over there years ago and apparently there are plans now to replace with a two track bridge. This one was built about 1920

Sam Bailey commented on Marty's share
Missouri River Bridge at Sibley was totaly rebuilt on the spot between 1912 and 1915. Some thought bridge was replaced with new segments but the photo's show it was rebuilt/replaced on the spot. I am including 3 photo's of the progress in either 1912 or 1913. This photo shows the beginning work on the south/west end of the bridge.

Sam Bailey commented on Marty's share
This photo shows the south/west end completed with the other two spans (old/former) bridge still intact waiting for replacement.

Sam Bailey commented on Marty's share
This photo is the most informative one that shows in detail how they done it. Still there are myteries that just cannot be solved account records lost. Good thing someone took the photos and now the Kansas City Public Library has them.
Sam Bailey Basically it appears the bridge was rebuilt under traffic. Of course though Santa Fe was not operating that many trains in that particular time era yet.

Note in a satellite image that there is a significant steel trestle across a flood plain and then an earth embankment on the east side. And there are two sharp curves to cross the river at 90-degrees. It appears they chose a wide, but shallow, part of the river for the crossing.

Page 13 in Volume 59 of Railway Age Gazette

Terry Redeker Flickr

Santa Fe Missouri River Bridge Sibley, Missouri

When I first got my drone this was a shot that I knew I had to get.

RailPhotoArt posted
For Throw Back Thursday we have a photograph from the Wallace W. Abbey Collection of the Santa Fe no. 304 passing over the Sibley Railroad Bridge across the Missouri River. Photograph taken in July 1969, near Sibley, MO. See more classic views from Abbey in the Center's book, "Significant Images of Railroading," available at http://www.railphoto-art.org/significant-images-of-railroading/

Bill Kapprel posted
Now it's May, 1940 and the Santa Fe has assigned #11 an E3A built one year earlier, to the Kansas Cityan -Chicagoan. Pictured is westbound train [also 11], the Kansas Cityan shown crossing the Missouri River near Sibley, MO which is about 30 minutes from KC Union Station. My dads photo is marked that some portion of this train continued to Oklahoma City at the time. Eventually there was a Tulsa and Ft. Worth further extension of service in the late '40s.
Mike Bartels: It was extended from Wichita to Oklahoma City in 1939, and the Kansas City-Tulsa Tulsan was added at the same time, carrying through cars. The parlor observation, for example, ran through from Chicago to Tulsa. It did continue to Dallas as an overnight train, although I think it ran under separate numbers south of OKC, at least at first.