Friday, March 15, 2019

UP/Spokane International 1906 wood bridge at Bonners Ferry, ID

(Bridger Hunter, (1980s replacement); Satellite)

The old bridge in Harley's post below caught my eye because it looked like a metal double-lattice bridge. But when I started researching it, the old bridge was even more rare. It was made of wood! It is a Howe Truss, so the verticals are skinny metal rods or bars. That is why I saw only a bunch of diagonal members in Harley's "then" photo.

Idaho.gov .pdf extract
The first train crossed the Spokane International Railroad bridge in Bonners Ferry in 1906. The old bridge collapsed during the construction of a new bridge in 1985, dumping eight cars into the Kootenai River
Harley Kuehl posted two photos with the comment: "One of the few places I can pull a serious before and after: Both are Union Pacific at Bonners Ferry Idaho; same location of course, first shot was back in 5/84, 2nd picture is the replacement bridge when I got to visit 7/2000!"

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Pinterest saved by Donald Abel

David Plowdin from Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, 1968
Five 125 foot through Howe truss spans. Spokane International Railroad completed 1932 (since demolished).

Google    I spent a while going through the Pinterest search results, but I could not find this image.
The Bonners Ferry collapse was on December 6, 1985. Fortunately, only eight cars on the rear of the train (which was cabooseless by then) fell in, so no locomotives or employees were lost. It was one of the few wooden through-truss railroad bridges still in existence. UP was already building a new plate girder bridge next to it; completion schedule was sped up and they had the last span and track panel laid down two days later. My photo of the wooden bridge pre-collapse was in the December 1987 Trains. A photo of the aftermath was in the April 1987 Trains. [Trains, Bruce Kelly comment at "06, 2010 9:41 AM"]

I searched the NTSB site with "bonners ferry", but there were no meaningful results.


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