1848+1909 Bridges over Illinois River at Peoria, IL, Collapsed

(Satellite, the 1909 bridge was replaced by the 1913 Franklin Street Bridge.)

Since the 1909 bridge lasted for just a few weeks, it doesn't show up on any maps that I could find.

peorian
The bridge was dedicated on Apr 11, 1909. "The old 1848 wooden bridge, nicknamed “Old Tooth Picks” for its dilapidated and frightening condition, had two sections that had been swept away in a flood. A new bridge was a necessity."

peorian
Construction
"The new bridge was built with five concrete-and-steel arches with one rolling lift span to allow boat traffic to pass. The total length was 1,124 feet [343m]. The roadway was 25 feet [7.6m] in width with two 5-foot-wide sidewalks on either side. The five arches supported six spans of 125 feet [38m] with longitudinal arch ribs spaced with transverse bars tightly woven in them."

peorian
A few weeks after its dedication, it collapsed at 5:50am on May 1, 1909.
"At the time of the accident, there was no traffic on the bridge and luckily no casualties."

peorian
"Government engineers reported on the accident and speculated why the bridge fell into the river. They deduced that the catastrophe was a culmination of a long series of mishaps and blunders. They concluded that as early as 1908, engineers noticed that piers three and four where not placed on sound bedrock and had settled into the river floor by 10 inches in a couple months. Excavations to remedy the settling caused cracks to appear in the walls of the spans. As the city was side-excavating to support the cracking walls, the Illinois River began flooding and stopped the work. With the foundations deeply undermined, the force of the river current was too much for the lateral support system, a recipe for disaster."

Peoria has a long history of booze production.

Judy Goby Oxtoby posted

Peoria - c 1915 - Gipps Brewery—remains of concrete bridge failure.

Source: personal PC collection

Larry Miller III posted seven images with the comment:

By request, here is the sequence of bridges over the Illinois River between Peoria and East Peoria built in approximately the same location.

The second bridge is the Bridge of Sighs.

The wood wagon bridge had aged terribly and the City of Peoria paid $200,000 to construct a concrete bridge. Unfortunately, the builders placed the piers on river silt instead of bedrock and did not reinforce the concrete structure beyond the lift span. It only lasted for about a week before collapsing into the river. A great embarrassment to Peoria. 

The lift span and its piers remained on the Peoria side and the rest had to be removed from the river.

Joline Gorman Bruder: I believe that is the reason the Franklin St Bridge had a curve in it because they couldn’t build it straight across due to the silt. At least that’s what my grandparents used to say.

Steve Drassler: The old Franklin Street Bridge (near where Bob Michel bridge is now) was supposedly the most tricky spot for Illinois River towboats to navigate barge tows through. The barge tow had to be nuzzled up parallel to the Peoria riverbank side before proceeding. It was always fun to watch them perform this dance while seated at the Steak n Shake across the river in EP.

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This location was the first vehicular bridges at Peoria. Only roads and tracks were on the flood plain back then. This shows the 1848 wood bridge.

1905/05 Peoria Quad @ 62,500

The concrete bridge was replaced by the 1913 Franklin Street Bridge.