Friday, September 29, 2017

NS/NKP Bridge and Wabash & Erie Canal Aqueduct over St. Marys River in Fort Wayne, IN

(Bridge Hunter, 3D SatelliteStreet View from Main, Street View from Sherman)

The satellite and street views would be of today's NS/N&W/NKP bridge. This 1889 bridge would not be able to hold the "big steam locomotives" that NKP ran in the 20th Century.
Great Memories and History of Fort Wayne, Indiana posted
St. Mary's River from west Main Street bridge, 1889, showing stone factory or mill with smokestack by iron bridge. ACPL
Matt Reibs River Greenway to the left, parking lot to the right in modern times.
[Since the NKP used the right-of-way of the Wabash and Erie Canal, there probably was an aqueduct here over the St. Marys River in the mid 1800s. (Update: Tom's History describes the mill and the covered aqueduct that proceeded this bridge.)]


Becky Osbun also posted
Rick Brandt The view is looking North. The trestle seems farther away, I think, because the original Main St bridge was farther South than today's bridge.
Randy Harter This is the Orff Mill, however, it had other names/owners over the years. The mill was on the east side of the St Mary’s, just south [actually, north] of the Main St bridge. The tiny triangular shaped park there on Main with the statue of the boys who swam in the aqueduct is sitting in the eponymous Orff Park. While this was originally an overshot mill driven by water diverted from the Wabash & Erie Canal (which closed in 1874) in this photo we can see the smokestack indicating it was has been converted to steam engine.

Update:
Tommy Lee Fitzwater posted

Kenneth Childers posted
Wells Street Bridge over the St. Mary's River [posted by Downtown Fort Wayne, facebook, 2017-07-30]
[A lot of comment agree with Kenneth that this is the Wells Street Bridge, but clearly, it is the NS/NKP Bridge. The bridge in the background is the Main Street Bridge because of the concrete arches.]

Photo from Kenneth Childers' posting
'Wabash and Erie Canal aqueduct at Fort Wayne' [Pictorial History of Fort Wayne Griswold 1917]

Canal Society of Indiana posted
St Mary's Aqueduct - Ft Wayne W&E Canal
Edsall Mill using canal water coming from St Joseph Feeder into main canal at Rumsey & Wheeler. Feeder is 6 1/2 miles long.

DeBruler

Fourth photo posted by David Coleman
Great Memories and History of Fort Wayne, Indiana posted
Photo of the painting by Ralph Dille of the Wabash and Erie Canal Aqueduct over the St. Mary's River at Fort Wayne. Aqueduct also known as the St. Mary's Aqueduct. 1882.

Chris Gleason posted
[Fortunately, the comments confirmed it was this NS/NKP bridge.]

Canal Society of Indiana posted
The St. Marys aqueduct in Fort Wayne was only 160 feet long and was roofed. The enclosed diagram shows the aqueduct, the large basin to the west and the Orff Mill that operated using the water from the canal. The canal water came from the St. Joseph River via the 6½ mile feeder canal.

Canal Society of Indiana posted
Pictured here ice is destroying what little remained of .Ft Wayne’s St Marys aqueduct. As shown it is just south of today’s railroad bridge. The view is from the east side looking west. The new sign that CSI just has placed is located just below the men standing on the west side.

Screenshot @ -0:14



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