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| 2011 photo by Fmiser via BridgeHunter, cropped |
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| Timothy Mabe posted Construction of the Vachel Lindsay Bridge at Lake Springfield, circa 1933. HistoricBridges has a cropped version of this photo. |
These are notes that I am writing to help me learn our industrial history. They are my best understanding, but that does not mean they are a correct understanding.
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| 2011 photo by Fmiser via BridgeHunter, cropped |
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| Timothy Mabe posted Construction of the Vachel Lindsay Bridge at Lake Springfield, circa 1933. HistoricBridges has a cropped version of this photo. |
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| Street View, Sep 2024 |
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| Kristy McCoy, Jul 2019 |
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| Hélène Blais, Aug 2022 |
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| Janey Anderson posted Here's the Confederation Bridge - opened on May 31, 1997, the 12.9-kilometre (8.0 mi) bridge is Canada's longest bridge and the world's longest bridge over ice-covered water. It's a box girder bridge carrying the Trans-Canada Highway across the Abegweit Passage of the Northumberland Strait, linking the province of Prince Edward Island with the mainland province of New Brunswick. And it's a LONG drive across!! 😂 |
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| Mahonnath K, Aug 2025 |
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| Yoginath Poreddy, Jul 2025 |
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| Joe Scanlan, Aug 2023 |
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| David Townsend, Jun 2025 |
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| Jetlover X, Jun 2022 |
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| Bill McBay, Aug 2019 |
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| Harri, Aug 2022 |
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| Stitched photo by Steve Conro via BridgeHunter The 286' (87m) long bridge has two 139' (42m) spans. "Built 1932; rehabilitated 1997" |
Old bridge in Lasalle County IL.February 2026
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| Phil Hotchkin commented on Christian's post It’s a bit rustier now. This was 15 years ago. |
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| Dennis DeBruler commented on Christian's post The gates seem to be a recent addition. This street view is from Aug 2025. https://maps.app.goo.gl/rr3ZWzaemTExRykn8 |
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| Scott Johnson (sajflorida) Flickr, License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) |
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| Street View, May 2024 |
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| wptv Within hours of the Coast Guard alert, the mayor of Stuart, FL, said "FDOT engineers have not found any evidence that the bridge is at immediate risk of collapsing." "Upon inspection, engineers with FDOT found that rust in the steel cables had been exposed when the concrete fell. Further inspection revealed an area of concern on the northbound side of the bridge as well." Tolls were waved on the Florida Turnpike between Port St. Lucie and Stuart to help detour traffic around the closed bridges. |
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| Street View, May 2024 |
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| 5:20 video @ 0:37 |
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| @ 4:04 |
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| Steven J. Brown posted Brightline Siemens SCB-40 121 (built 2023) crossing the St Lucie River at Stuart, Florida - February 19, 2026. The train wears a wrap celebrating the 250-year anniversary of the USA. |
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| 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." |
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| 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." |
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| 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." |
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| 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." |
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| Judy Goby Oxtoby posted Peoria - c 1915 - Gipps Brewery—remains of concrete bridge failure. Source: personal PC collection |
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.
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| 1905/05 Peoria Quad @ 62,500 |
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| 1895/95 Oneida Quad @ 62,000 |
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| Digitally Zoomed. |
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| Digitally Zoomed |
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| Satellite plus Paint |
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