1892 Horse and Wagon Bridge: (
Bridge Hunter;
Historic Bridges;
John A. Weeks III; see "delicate" truss bridge in some of the photos below. The original wood trestle was replaced by a concrete open-spandrel arch,
Satellite)
1871 C&NW Railroad Bridge: (
Bridge Hunter;
Satellite, the piers still stand in the backwater.)
1899 + 1928 C&NW Railroad Bridge, abandoned 1977: (
Bridge Hunter;
John A. Weeks III, good history;
Main Channel Satellite,
Backwater Satellite)
CB&Q+Green Bay and Western Railroad Bridge: (
Bridge Hunter 1, Built in 1891; closed 1985; burned in 1989; removed in 1990;
Bridge Hunter 2 has a better description;
GreenBayRoute, 420' swing span;
John A. Weeks III;
HAER;
Satellite)
1941 Vehicle Bridge: (
Bridge Hunter;
Historic Bridges;
John A. Weeks III;
HAER; see satellite image below)
2016 Vehicle Bridge: (
Bridge Hunter (For once, the plan is to restore the truss bridge and the two bridges will share the traffic load! Furthermore, the concrete-box girder design of the new bridge retains clear site lines of the old bridge.))
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Joe Fishbein posted
This is the original high bridge across the Mississippi River at Winona, MN. It was replaced in 1941 by the cantilever truss I showed earlier. The bridge 30 miles upstream at Wabasha, MN (replaced in 1986) had a similar approach, with two 90-degree bends bringing traffic into the downtown area. Real photo postcard from my collection. |
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Pete Zimmerman posted
1898. Winona, Minnesota. Sternwheeler Lafayette Lamb. 8x10 inch glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. (unknown photographer |
At first, I thought this was a different exposure of the above photo. But the above has someone setting on a bench while the following has two people walking on the sidewalk.
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Bridges Now and Then posted
Bridges over the Mississippi River at Winona, Minnesota, 1898. (Library of Congress) |
I saved an image of the satellite view because the construction barges and new piers indicate a new bridge is being built. Fortunately, unlike Illinois, MN rehabilitates and keeps some of its truss bridges, including this one.
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Shorpy (source)
[Note how the pivot pier aligns with the pier of the road bridge to form a straight navigation channel.] |
Comments on the Shorpy site:
Bridge Over Troubled Water Submitted by DaveA on Thu, 01/24/2019 - 10:35am.
Two bridges can be seen in this photo. One had been around for more than 25 years. The other, much bigger, was pretty new at the time. From a 1960s report for the Interior Department, addressing both:
Although a railroad bridge connected Winona to the Wisconsin shore as early as 1871, the city had no direct highway access for another two decades. Teamsters made do with a ferry that carried them over the Main Channel to Latsch Island; there they disembarked onto a long wooden trestle that spanned the North Channel and the river's remaining expanse. In 1892, the ferry finally gave way to Bridge #5930, Steel, cantilever, through-truss design, the span was a municipally financed project designed to make Winona the main trade center for its Wisconsin neighbors. To retire the construction debt, the city administered the new "High Wagon Bridge" as a toll crossing.By the 1930s, auto traffic was making the now "old" high bridge obsolete, with its zigzag connection to an older North Channel wagon bridge a serious impediment.
A new span was designed and survives today about a quarter mile up river from the bridges seen in the photo above. Ironically, an updated form of the original North Channel wagon bridge survives for non-motorized traffic.
Answered my own question Submitted by Mudhooks on Thu, 01/24/2019 - 9:31am.
The Winona Bridge had a swing span
“The bridge was built from the Wisconsin shore across the back channel to Island 72, now known as Latsch Island, across the main channel to the Winona shore. In the middle of the channel, a huge stone pylon was built up from the riverbed, and a steel and wood beam span was built on top of it. This section of bridge was designed to pivot on that center support, swinging parallel to the shore to allow steamboats, barges and log rafts to pass unimpeded. A tender's shack stood at the pivot point to shelter the rail roadman, who set the machinery in motion to swing the bridge closed when a train approached. At 363 feet, its swinging span -- the "draw" -- was the longest in the world.”
https://www.winonadailynews.com/special-section/pieces-of-the-past/thurs...
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The eighth photo in a gallery
An early lithograph from the 1880s shows the railroad bridge and the ferry bridge that ran from Wisconsin to Latch Island.
[This would have been the RR bridge that proceeded the one in the above photo.] |
The mention of "log rafts" in a Shorpy comment above was interesting. Did they really thread log rafts between the bridge piers? The article that contains this photo (see caption for link) says they put a steamboat at the front and back of a raft to steer the raft down the river. If you are interested in the logging industry that cut down the trees in Wisconsin by 1910, the article is well worth dealing with the single popup advertisement.
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Ted Hazelton posted
The Green Bay & Western Railway's bridge into Winona, Mn. This crossed over the Mississippi River between Wisconsin and Minnesota. In use for a little over 100 years. Abandoned and torn down in 1991.
Dennis DeBrulerThis is one of several available from the LoC. It looks like HAER MINN,85-WIN,1--9 |
John explains that there was an emergency closure on June 3, 2008, after it was discovered the bridge had the same gusset problem that caused the collapse of I-35W. On June 14, they allowed cars and pickup trucks to use it. In addition to heavy vehicles, pedestrians and bicycles were still banned so that they could use the sidewalks to park equipment for bridge repairs. On July 22, the major structural repairs were done and they removed traffic restrictions. But the sidewalks remained closed until Oct. 3 because of additional repair work.
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MnDOT
The Winona Bridge carries an average of 11,300 vehicles per day. |
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1942 Photo, first of 15 photos including some construction and ferry photos
In this 1942 photo, you can see the then-new Winona Bridge, left, the Railroad [C&NW] Bridge and the old wagon bridge before it was demolished in 1943.
[It is interesting that this much steel was allowed for a replacement during WWII.] |
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David Gulden posted
EWD . B WARNER at WINONA MINNESOTA |
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Roger Deschner photo from Bridge Hunter, cropped, License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike (CC BY-SA)
The two ends of the main span are about to meet in the middle in January 2016. The old bridge can be seen behind it, and the remains of the CNW - Winona Swing Bridge can be seen underneath it. |
The approach spans are steel girder. The concrete box girders appear to be poured in place rather than lifting pre-cast segments at the ends. Some Winonans wanted "the demolition of the historic bridge in favor of building a new, beautiful arch bridge" even though it would cost $14m more. Accepting an ugly concrete bridge to help preserve the truss bridge caused trepidation in 2016 when MnDOT announced that they were putting the rehabilitation plans on hold because of estimated cost overruns. ($62m of the project's $142m was for the rehabilitation, but they thought it would cost $30m more. Part of the cost problem was a new engineering standard called HL 93.) Everybody agreed that ending up with two ugly concrete bridges would be a bummer compared to the arches that Hastings and La Crosse got. The irony is that initially MnDOT wanted to tear it down; but, because it was Minnesota's last surviving through-truss bridge, federal law and regulators required studying the feasibility of saving it. [
WinonaPost] The reduced the rehabilitation costs by replacing the approaches.
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| Roger Deschner photo from Bridge Hunter, License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike (CC BY-SA) |
The new bridge opened Aug 27, 2016. Because the paint on the truss bridge contained lead, before they sandblasted it and the rust off the old bridge, they had to enclose the truss "in tarps and creating a negative air pressure environment to contain paint, steel and concrete particles so they do not pollute the river or nearby ground." They will also add extra truss members so that it is no longer a "fracture critical" design. [
PostBulletin]
In 2016, they had made the decision to replace the approach spans, but they were debating if the new ones should be deck trusses like the old ones or beams like the new one. Since street views are typically more up to date, I checked it out. Obviously, they went with the choice of making the approaches look similar rather than replicating the deck trusses. But the difference in pier designs is interesting. Does the 12' trail on the new bridge require the more elaborate pier design?
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The ninth photo in a gallery
This photograph from 1935 shows the bridge in La Crosse, Wis., that was damaged when a car hit a girder, knocking a span of the bridge into the Mississippi River. The damage to the bridge, similar to the old wagon bridge in Winona, led to calls for the old bridge in Winona to be replaced.
[I doubt if a horse could take out a bridge girder. I wonder if a car could take out a girder in a more modern truss. I'll bet an 18-wheeler could. So rust is not the only reason to avoid "fracture critical" designs.] |
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The tenth photo in a gallery
[This closeup of the old wagon bridge allows us to see how spindly the truss was. At least it was steel instead of iron. The deck was made with wood.] |
Why other towns with trusses got pretty new arch bridges while Winona got stuck with an ugly concrete bridge. Specifically, when La Crosse built their second bridge 10 years ago, the truss was not considered historic by the Federal Government.
Actually, the concrete bridge does interfere with the view of the upstream side. But I can believe that it helps the downstream view.
A 2016 history of the efforts to fix the crossing. I haven't read it, but I include it for completeness.
They saved the truss bridge!
They used 3-D finite-element analyses, including some refined analysis, to determine how to install steel plating and high-strength post-tensioning bars to strengthen the bridge with minimum visual impact on the trusses. The strengthen bridge meets permit load limits, adds 50 years and removes fracture-critical truss members. The approach spans were replaced, but they used deck trusses for the new spans so the aesthetic of the bridge was preserved. They also improved the old piers to meet modern
allision requirements by linking each old pier to a corresponding pier in the new bridge. This allows the new bridge to help the old bridge resist an allision by a tow. And the bridge opened five months ahead of schedule on July 1, 2019! Kudos to MnDOT and the companies they hired for paying attention to the public input and doing a good job.
