BNSF/AT&SF 1909 Bridge over Kansas River at Topeaka, KS

(Bridge Hunter; no Historic Bridges; John Marvig; 3D Satellite)

David F. Riker posted
Santa Fe steam engines on bridge at Topeka, Ks., over the Kansas River, July, 1951, during the great Kansas flood....which I lived through at Chanute, Ks.
Charles Smith I remember this very well..when the bridge fell locomotives went down..one is still there! Yea I survied the great Kaw valley flood of 1951. This was the line to St. Joe... Correction! Three engines fell # 1035, 3167,and 4076,...one has yet to be recovered.
Charles Smith The Santa Fe had a white stripe painted high on one of the shop walls.. a marker of the great flood of 1903 when water crested at Topeka at 30.5 ft over flood stage. when the waters fell in 1951 they moved the marker up the Kansas river had crested at 37ft!
Jonathan Forrest Stroup As someone with a geo background and have seen rivers exceed flood stage, I would not trust any bridge when the water is lapping at the deck. No idea what condition the pilings are in and what could have been washed into the bridge and collided earlier.

More info on the flood is here.

Dylan Edwards Flickr, License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA)
This area is in the planning stages of becoming Topeka's Riverfront Park.

Bridge Hunter indicates that two of the spans were replaced in 1952 and it was lengthened in 1968. It also supplies the span details:

Span #1 - 6 Panel Warren Through Truss (Built 1968)Span #2/#3 - 7 Panel Pratt Through Trusses (Built 1909)Span #4 - 6 Panel Pratt Through Truss, Built Ca. 1902Span #5 - 6 Panel Baltimore Through Truss (Built 1952)Span #6 - 7 Panel Pratt Through Truss (Built 1909)Through Plate Girder Span (Built 1909)I-Beam Span (Built 1968)

John Marvig has different information. This implies that the bridge was lengthened in 1964 and that one of the 1952 replacements was replaced again in 1968.
The current configuration of the bridge, from south to north is as follows:
1-25' I-Beam Span (Added 1964)
1-75' Through Girder Span crossing River Road(Built 1909)
1-7 panel, pin connected Pratt Through Truss (Built 1909)
1-6 panel, riveted Baltimore Through Truss (Built 1952)
1-6 panel, pin connected Pratt Through Truss (Built Ca. 1940, Relocated Here 1968)
2-7 panel, pin connected Pratt Through Trusses (Built 1909)
1-6 panel, riveted Warren Through Truss (Built 1952, Added 1964)
The bridge rests on entirely concrete substructures, which have been modified since the original construction of the bridge.


I labeled piers #4 and #5 because they appear to be the ones that were lost and that dumped three locomotives into the river during the 1951 flood. The two spans and one of the locomotives is still in the river. This view also shows how high the water would have been to be lapping at the deck. I think the water is relatively high in this Jun, 2019, view because it appears the trees have some leaves in the water. I'm reminded that the Plains States did see a lot of flooding this year. The above Flickr photo does show a lower river level. I've read that sometimes the river is low enough that you can see the top of the fallen spans.

Street View

The 1909 bridge was built because the original bridge got wiped out by a flood in 1903. [John Marvig]