Iowa Northern/Rock Island Bridge over Cedar River near Cedar Rapids, IA

(Bridge Hunter, no Historic Bridges, 3D Satellite)

Peter Schierloh posted

Another interesting former Rock Island bridge, this one over the Cedar River near Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Still in use by the Iowa Northern Railway, the main section of the bridge includes five riveted through plate girders resting on some rather unusual, and extremely stout, riveted steel piers. The columns are all driven H-pile that have been framed together with an extensive array of braces, struts, caps, and cross caps, all of which where pre-fabricated in a shop and field riveted to the H-piles in the field.

The lone stone pier is from the original Burlington, Cedar Rapids, & Northern and dates to late 19th century. There was another stone pier and a sixth TPG at the far end of the bridge, but both where destroyed in a 1971 Rock Island derailment. The timber trestle the Rock built to carry trains after span was destroyed was finally replaced by the Iowa Northern with a more permanent structure a couple years ago.

Near the end of the Bridge Hunter photos is the concrete trestle that replaced the wooden trestle that replaced the spans broken by the 1971 Rock Island derailment.