1927,2014 Ambridge-Aliquippa Bridge in Pennsylvania

(Bridge Hunter; Historic Bridges; B&T; 3D Satellite)

I discovered this bridge in a "Bridges & Tunnels with Sherman Cahal" post. Any cantilevered bridge that a state DOT restored is worth noting. In fact, HistoricBridges reports that Pennsylvania's original plans were to replace it. However, HistoricBridges explains that the state could not afford a replacement and did just a partial rehabilitation good for 25 years rather than a complete rehabilitation that would have been good for 75 years.

Street View, Sep 2021

Some of the detailed photos in BridgeHunter caught my eye since they showed pin connections. I was able to catch some pin connections in a street view. Note the lower-left and upper-right corners in this view. This bridge must have been a transition design between pin connections and gusset plates because descriptions of the $16.6m 2011-14 rehabilitation include "repairing all gusset plates."

Street View

This view was taken while the rehabilitation was in progress.

Street View, Oct 2013

1906-1987 Milwaukee/Chicago Southern Railway Jenkins Ford High Bridge

(Bridge Hunter; Satellite, a couple of miles east of Westville, IL over the Vermilion River)

BridgeHunter
A view of the trestle and the then current mode of transportation. The bridge that they will cross is barely visible on the other side of the trestle towers.

eBook via BridgeHunter, 1908

While paging through the eBook to find a page number for the above photo (page 601), I found some more photos of this bridge.

Digitized by Google, p173

Digitized by Google, p475

Digitized by Google, p553

Digitized by Google, p601

An artist rather obviously added a work train to the above photo.

Postcard via BridgeHunter

The footing by the river is almost covered up by trees.

Satellite

Jim Bryant posted seven images with the comment:

Jenkins Ford Bridge, east of Westville, Illinois, was built in 1906 for the Chicago Southern Railway; removed in 1987. In its day it was considered the tallest bridge in Illinois. Built by Chicago Bridge & Iron Works of Chicago, Illinois (also known as Chicago Bridge & Iron Co).. Railroads lines that operated in its day were  the Chicago Southern Railway (CSRY)- Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad (MILW),  Chicago, Terre Haute & Southeastern Railway (CTH&S)

Design

Deck plate girder

Dimensions

Length of largest span: 200.0 ft.

Total length: 1,600.0 ft.

Tim Shanahan shared

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The removal of the bridge in early 1980's.

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Construction of both bridges in 1906.

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This picture was taken in1906. This was the south bridge which provided a right of way for civilians to get across the river. To the right and adjacent was the railroad bridge which is seen at the right of the picture.

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The aerial view was taken in 1940.

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The same overhead view from what it looks like presently, the blue line showing where the railrlroad line ran. Two concrete girders are barely visible juat past Vermilion River.

ToDo:

Digitized by Google, p177

1889,1916,1951,2017 One-Lane Road+R.J. Corman/C&O Bridge over New River in Thurmond, WV

(Brudge Hunter; Historic Bridges; B&T, Blog; Satellite)

BridgeHunter specifies a build date of 1916, but B&T explains that date is when it was rebuilt after a derailment of two cars caused extensive damage. The bridge was completed in 1889 and the building railroad was connected to the C&O in 1893. In addition to the 1916 repairs, the bridge has been rehabilitated in 1951 and 2017.

There are more photos with this bridge in some notes on the coaling tower in Thurmond, WV. This town is so far off the beaten path that a street view car has evidently never been there.

Photo in comment by Tim in BridgeHunter

 

Jonathan Konopka posted
1982 - C&O 3863 in Thurmond, WV. Photograph by John F. Bjorklund, collection of the Center for Railroad Photography & Art.
William Alan Hall: Worked there many times over the years on CSX. See that little road on the right? I use to cross that with a big knuckle boom service truck. There was no weight limit on it back then. They assured me it would hold my truck. Use to close one eye when I crossed it....
Brandon Demers: “LEFT LANE LIMIT- 20000 TONS”.
Randall Hampton shared
That's the Thurmond station on the right.

 

Robert Slavy posted
04/21/18. Thurmond. Taken through my windshield when you had to drive on the railroad side of the bridge while they made repairs on the road part.

1 of 4 posted by Craig Hensley Photography
CSX G227 - Thurmond, WV
An eastbound CSX grain train passing through the town of Thurmond, WV in the heart of the New River Gorge. Chock full of history, this rather small town was incorporated in 1900 and was named for Captain W. D. Thurmond who settled here in 1844. C&O began operating through Thurmond in 1892 and since this was a coal mining town, coal was the primary export. A railroad station was constructed in 1888 and still stands today as a historic depot and an active stop on Amtrak's tri-weekly Cardinal service. The railroad took up the majority of real estate in town, as is still does today as part of the CSX New River Subdivision
Douglas Drexel Mitchell: Is the track over the bridge still used?
Peter Kazmierczak: Douglas Drexel Mitchell Primarily coal traffic is taken over that bridge, but some mixed freight for customers on that line as well. RJ Corman calls it the Loup Creek branch. Often times a CSX local will leave either a full empty coal train or other cars for them on a siding just north outside of town. RJC will get permission to either grab the mixed freight with their own power, or in the case of a coal train they use the CSX power for taking the train to and from the loading site. Loading takes place at Pax, using RJC power to move cuts of cars through. Once complete, they will tie back on with the CSX power and take it back for interchange. These ops are as-needed, but usually there's at least one coal train a week.
[Note the coaling tower in the background.]

This is the original bridge. Note that it had two tracks.

A 5:02 video of a history of the bridge, Screenshot @ 1:21

Zachary Syner posted
Thurmond Train Bridge and Station. This town used to service 15 passenger trains a day. It had attractions such as a movie theater, two hotels, two banks and more. Thurmond began to decline with the switch to diesel locomotives and the closing of local coal mines. The train station was restored by The National Park Service in efforts to save the history of the town, today it’s used as a visitor center museum.

The thing that caught my eye was the river level, not the train. Although coal trains are becomming more and more rare. I quit watching after a few coal cars went by.

safe_image for coal train crossing Thurmond bridge Thurmond West Virginia

J Reeves Photography posted
A coal train slowly passing through the ghost town of Thurmond, West Virginia, in the heart of the New River Gorge National Park.
Chris Robinson: The coal is from a mine in Pax WV. Alpha Resources.
Randall Hampton shared
Coming off the branch.
Eric Domboski: Nice photo! Since Thurmond still has some residents, it is NOT a ghost town.
J Reeves Photography: Eric Domboski might be a slight exaggeration, but it's certainly slight. 5 people don't make up much of a town.

Abandoned and Old Truss Road Bridges over Spoon River

Old Babylon Road: (Satellite)

Aban Seville Road: (Satellite) This crossing has been replaced by IL-95. It is next to the KJRY/TP&W bridge.

Aban Old Bridge Road: (Satellite) There is a new bridge just a few hundred feet downstream.

Seville Road:

Hans Goeckner, Nov 2021

Old Bridge Road:

Fred Monger shared
the bridge at Bernadotte Illinois, before part of it fell into the Spoon River...

Tomas Powell commented on Fred's post
The part of the bridge that was removed

Justin Fogerty posted a 2:20 drone video and six photos. The drone video includes the Camp Ellis Spoon River Dam that is just upstream from this bridge. It also flies over the fallen segment that is now on land.

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This river has some good examples of meanders.

Almost cutoff

Cutoff

Part of an oxbow lake that is still left.

Satellite

Double Bascule Bridge across North Coast Harbor in Cleveland, OH

(Satellite, it is new enough that it has yet to appear on a satellite image)

I determined the satellite location by the William G. Mather steamship and the FirstEnergy Stadium in the background.

Doublas Spott posted
New pedestrian Double Bascule Bridge across North Coast Harbor

Douglas commented on his post

Douglas Butler posted
Photo taken by Douglas Butler the new 2021 North Coast Harbor Double Leaf Dutch Type is in Cleveland, OH.

Southern Pacific Ferries across the Mississippi River in and near New Orleans, LA

Southern Pacific entered the New Orleans area on the south side of the river. and terminated in New Orleans. They used two ferry routes to interchange traffic with northern and eastern railroads and to deliver passengers to the downtown area. I'm going to call the routes "New Orleans" and "Harahan-Avondale".

New Orleans:

New Orleans Side: (Satellite, there are still some tracks left on this side of the river)

West Bank Side: (Satellite)

Harahan-Avondale:

New Orleans Side: (the area has changed too much to identify the location)

West Bank Side: (Satellite)

These ferries were made obsolete by the Huey P. Long Bridge in 1935. The IC W.B. Duncan ferry was reassigned to the Mississippi River when the P&I Bridge made the IC Ohio River ferry obsolete.

New Orleans

Derby Gisclair posted
Railroads needed a way to transport their railcars across the Mississippi River as well. This photograph shows the interior of an unloaded train ferry. The catamaran style sidewheeler from 1900 had two sets of tracks that could accommodate four to six railcars. The terminal was located at the foot of Esplanade Avenue and ran to Morgan's Landing in Algiers.
Jerry Pepper: That one in the picture appears to have 3 sets of tracks! And I think I’ve seen some with up to 4 sets of tracks inside them.

Eric Cormier shared
[There are a lot of comments on this share. Some concern the Admiral, which was built on the hull of this ferry. Others argue if this was a Detroit ferry instead of a NOLA ferry.]

Dennis DeBruler commented on Eric's share
1932 New Orleans NE Quadrangle @ 1:31,680

Nancy Brister [This page has more photos.]

Jack Bobby Lou Mulreavy posted
Southern Pacific car ferry in New Orleans LA

Gary C. Huggins posted
Before the Huey P. Long Bridge opened in 1935, trains were ferried across the river. Southern Pacific's "Sunset Limited" westbound, sits aboard the ferry barge "Mastodon" accompanied by Engine No. 73, a steam switcher, as they are ferried across the Mississippi River from the foot of Elysian Fields Avenue to a landing at Elmira Street in Algiers Point.
The Mastodon, a barge built in 1909 at the New York Ship Building Corporation of Camden, New Jersey, was a 368-foot long, 50-foot wide behemoth which, propelled by tugboats, carried Southern Pacific trains between Elysian Fields Avenue and Elmira Street in Algiers Point.
Wendy BeachWalker: Those "Mastadon barges" still exist! I live on the Santa Rosa Sound in Florida and currently there is a dredging project right at the Destin bridge. Those massive barges create such an undertow, that other boats and pontoons have to use extreme caution to avoid getting into their wake.
We get very serious wave action every time they pass through our part of the sound. Very scary!
Jim Taylor: Wendy BeachWalker there was only one Mastodon and T. Smith bought it after the R/R operations ceased
Mark Imhoff shared

Passenger Train Enthusiasts posted
Blair Kullman: this site has an actual picture of the barge.
https://www.trains-and-railroads.com/sunset-limited-sp
Blair Kullman: and I believe the last comment in this blog is correct. Avondale over to Harahan, LA. IC had a yard that ran north-south in this time frame.
https://aboutmytrains.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-mastodon.html

Christopher L Purdom posted three photos with the comment: "Can’t find dates to go with pictures. Just that this is in New Orleans."

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Harahan-Avondale

Jim Taylor posted three images with the comment: "The Southern Pacific R/R car float barge that operated between Harahan and Avondale, Louisiana prior to the inauguration of the Huey P. Long Bridge in 1935 'Huey P. Long bridge had vehicular and rail traffic' Note: The slip remains today at the upper end of the now defunct Avondale Shipyard. Appears as if the barge employed a full time Pilot to run the operation from the barge Pilothouse and docking platform, 'Hand and whistle signals were the norm of the day'"

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1932 New Orleans NW Quadrangle @ 1:31,680

Mark Mcgowan posted
This photo, taken December 16, 1935, is of the last train crossing the Mississippi River between Harahan and Avondale, Louisiana on a Southern Pacific barge (freight cars from New Orleans to Algiers also saw their last use of barges the same day), as the Huey P. Long bridge, visible in the background, was dedicated the following day.
(Southern Pacific photo/George C. Werner collection)