Aban/C&NW 1877 Lattice Bridge over Kishwaukee River in Belvidere, IL

(Bridge Hunter; no Historic Bridges; Marvig; Satellite)

Jerry Jackson posted four photos with the comment:

For about 6 months back in the late '80s. I used to drive from Addison to Belvedere for work 5 days a week. I caught this train on what must have been a slow day at work. These photos were shot with a 126 cartridge camera, so I got what I got. The first shot is looking west at a main street. Shot two is a short distance further east and I took the bridge shots from State street. The negatives had been damaged and I tried to make them viewable. The last shot just shows more of the freight car for the curious. I couldn't find that bridge over the Kishwaukee anywhere and I assume it's long gone.

These photos are not in the order that Jerry posted them so that the bridge photos would be first. Note the captions for Jerry's order.

3

4

1

2

The design is a Town Lattice that was invented in 1820 for wood bridges. It was very common for wood bridges, but quite rare for metal bridges. Furthermore, all of the connections are riveted instead of pinned. Riveted connections are also rare for metal bridges in the 1800s. But since a Town Lattice would have each joint secured in a wooden bridge, the engineer did the same thing with his iron bridges. An 1877 bridge would have been built with iron instead of steel and that explains why it looks so good even though it has probably not had any maintenance done for a long time. Iron does not rust like steel does.

I wonder if this riveted lattice bridge in Carpentersville was done by the same C&NW engineer. I took another look at the photos at the end of my notes on a lattice bridge in Morris, IL and confirmed that it also has riveted joints.

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AJ Grigg

The east/west route through town was the original Galena & Chicago Union route, and it is now owned by UP. This bridge was part of a north/south route between Dekalb, IL and Beloit, WI that is now abandoned.

Back in 1941, the yards were north of the river and the only thing to the west was farmland.

1941 Aerial Photo from ILHAP, the yard

1941 Aerial Photo from ILHAP, an overview