1915,1997 "It's a Wonderful Life" Bridge and National Women's Hall of Fame/1844 Knitting Mills in Seneca Falls, NY

Bridge: (Archived Bridge Hunter; Bridge Hunter; no Historic Bridges; Satellite) also Bridge Street and Bailey

Mill: (Satellite)

The bridge is over the Cayuga and Seneca Canal, which connects to the Erie Canal.

US-20 goes along the north side of the canal through Seneca Falls.

Street View, May 2023

John Kucko Digital posted
Seneca Falls and It’s a Wonderful Life:  In the background is the steel “Bailey Bridge”, widely considered the real life inspiration for the Bedford Falls bridge “It’s a Wonderful Life” classic.  On the left is is the old 1844 Seneca Knitting Mills, now the National Women’s Hall of Fame and in the foreground are packet boats rented by users to enjoy the Seneca River on the way to the nearby Erie Canal—you can inquire at the Erie Canal Adventures.  This area is a fabulous part of the Finger Lakes Region and I captured this nine years ago today.

Bridge Street Bridge may have been the inspiration, but it wasn't the bridge. The bridge was built on a backlot in RKO Studios. In fact, the whole town was the inspiration for Bedford Falls. [imdb via J.R. Manning comment via ArchivedBridgeHunter]

2021 photo by Josh Schmid via BridgeHunter

1976,1989 29mw Kaw Dam on Arkansas River near Ponca City, OK

(Satellite)

The dam was finished in 1976, the hydroelectric plant was built 1987-89. It has one vertical Kaplan turbine with a head of 76' (23m) and a rating of 29mw. The peak rating is 36.7 MVA. [ompa]

35kcfs

Facebook Reel

Most of the dam is earth fill.

Street View, Mar 2026

The spillway has 8 radial gates.

Street View, Mar 2026

I see a couple of outlet conduits in the above view. Are both of them open in this view, or just the near one?

password 123, Jun 2024

ompa, p1

ompa, p2

ompa, p3

I think the pipe coming out of the building is a "slip stream nozzle" that was added in 1995 as one of the "improvements to increase the dissolved oxygen levels in the water being discharged from the Kaw hydro power facilities." [ompa, p3]

Ray, Jul 2024

1870+1902+2026 NS/Pennsy Bridge over East Fork Whitewater River in Richmond, IN

(Archived Bridge Hunter; Bridge Hunter; no Historic Bridges; Satellite)

"Originally built about 1870, current trusses built in 1902 on original stone substructures." [BridgeHunter]

Street View, Aug 2024

Bituminous Kole posted two photos with the comment: "Future show: First train to roll over the new Norfolk Southern bridge over the Whitewater River in Richmond Indiana: 64Q. Yes, a loaded ethanol train. Bold."

J.B. Rail Photog shared

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[The old trusses are between the yellow and red cranes and a new span for the south side is behind the yellow crane by the river.]

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[The 1870 arch continues to be used.]

Bill Dwyer commented on the above post
The old one comes out...

Gary Pope posted
West side of the John’s Manville lead is in place.

The trusses were pin connected.

2010 photo by Anthony Dillon via BridgeHunter

Historic Photo via BridgeHunter

BridgeHunter

1:05:59 video @ 1:07
36 Hours From Last Train Over Old Bridge to First Train Over New Bridge
"After several months of staging equipment and materials, the demolition and replacement of Warfolk Southern's bridge over the Whitewater River in Richmond, Indiana was replaced in just days. The world's third tallest crane was instrumental in getting this work done so quickly."
At 8:24 I saw the name Terex on the crane.
I'm surprised they don't have a second hook with far fewer leads to handle the lighter loads such as track so that they could move the load much faster.
(I shoved the cursor over the railfanning parts.)

They do have the extra counterweights attached to lift the truss.

@ 40:54

He went home after this scene, so I was left with the question of how did the crane turn further to get rid of the truss? If it turned much further, its added counterweight would bump into the new span that is stored under the arch. I decided that the truss is close enough to the crane that they can remove the extra counterweight. Then they can turn the crane further and walk the crane towards the storage area for the old truss. That would explain why the crane pad is set up so that the crane can move back and forth. They needed the extra counterweight just to reach over the river to lift the second span off its piers.

@ 46:43

Note the use of spreader bars under a spreader bar so that they can lift the track at four different spots. Rails are remarkably flexible and need a lot of support.

@ 48:21

At 52:32 is the worse excavator operation that I have watched. I would think they would assign one of their better operators to this time-sensitive job.

1933,1999,2011 Nebraska Iron Bridge over Tionesta Creek east of Oil City, PA

(Archived Bridge Hunter; Bridge Hunter; Historic Bridges; Satellite)

PA Great Outdoors Visitors Bureau posted three photos with the comment:

Friday Facts about the world-famous Nebraska Bridge in Forest County.

For most of the year vehicles cross the Nebraska Bridge near the quaint town of Tionesta without incident. The 187-foot-long structure over Tionesta Creek functions like many other truss bridges in western Pennsylvania, and its everyday appearance doesn’t indicate anything unusual about its existence. It’s a completely ordinary bridge with one exception: For at least few weeks each year, it’s underwater.

Built in 1933, the Nebraska Bridge took its name from the small lumber community of Nebraska that it served. At that point, Tionesta Creek flowed freely to the Allegheny River, and although the waterway swelled and shrank some with seasonal rains and snowmelt, the bridge sat high enough to provide regular access across the creek. Unfortunately, many communities downriver weren’t so fortunate, and intermittent flooding created recurring problems as development increased along the Allegheny’s banks.

To control this flooding, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built the Tionesta Dam during the late 1930s and put it into service in 1940. While its creation would ultimately prevent hundreds of millions of dollars of damage downriver, the residents of Nebraska four miles upstream of the dam had to relocate, as the impounded water would inevitably overtake their homes. However, the Nebraska Bridge stayed in place, and for more than three-quarters of a century now, it has regularly disappeared underwater and emerged again as water levels rise and fall behind the dam.

At normal levels, the water flows close to the underside of the bridge, but kayakers and canoers can sometimes pass safely underneath. A launch site and parking lot at the bridge’s southern end give easy access when the water is low enough, and boaters can continue on to the dam at the western end of Tionesta Lake. When the water is high, paddlers have the unique opportunity to navigate through the upper beams of the bridge and explore a completely different waterscape.

William Koller, bridge engineer for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation’s northwest region, notes that the Nebraska Bridge is structurally sound, thanks in part to renovations in 1999 and 2011, and regularly inspected for safety.

Learn more and find other interesting places to visit in Pennsylvania’s Great Outdoors region online at VisitPAGO.com. 

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PennDOT via HistoricBridges
"This bridge will soon be the only truss bridge in all of Forest County. This bridge is also noted for annually being flooded well above the deck, making this a "seasonal" crossing to say the least. The flood waters that this bridge receives are due to a nearby dam. As such, the flood waters are not raging floodwaters that carry a truss bridge off its abutments and crush it into scrap metal downstream, but are instead more or less calm and just drown the bridge. Water levels have risen high enough such that the entire bridge was underwater. In one of these cases, after the water level dropped, a bunch of debris that was floating on the water was left on top of the truss."

PennDOT via HistoricBridges

Travis Fisher, Apr 2022

1898 Trowbridge Dam on Kalamazoo River PCB Cleanup and Removal

(Satellite)

news10
"NCR Corp. will fund the dredging of contaminated sediments and removal of an aging dam in the Kalamazoo River." The settlement was for $245.2m in 2019. The 80-mile PCB cleanup started in 1998. That is, the cleanup has been ongoing during the 21st Century. "The Kalamazoo is polluted with polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, from paper recycling mills. Used for ink removal, the chemicals were discharged into the river from the 1950s through the mid-1970s. They also seeped into groundwater and surface waters from landfills where mill waste was dumped." "The agreement represents a significant milestone in the overall cleanup, which is expected to end up costing about $851 million, Clark said. Payment negotiations are continuing with other companies that share responsibility for the pollution, including Georgia-Pacific, International Paper and Weyerhaeuser."

Street View, Sep 2019

Street View, Jun 2025

MIDNR
"Due to public safety concern, the Trowbridge Dam was slated as the state’s highest-priority dam removal project in 2019." They completed the stabilization of the dam in 2020. The need to remove upstream PCBs is why the dam has yet to be removed in 2026.

Facebook Reel
The PCBs are removed through a carbon filtration process.

wmuk
"Inside a containment area, workers stand on top of large bags filled with contaminated sediment as they work to break surface tension. The bags are full of the contaminated material dredged from the river — the goal is to keep the contaminated sediment in the bags and remove the water for treatment. Surface tension inside the bags can cause sediment to plug holes and stop water from flowing out. Workers break the tension by using power washers, large machines and even whips, laboring long hours in the sun while wearing full protective equipment."

wmuk
"Water flows out of sediment bags and into a containment pool, where it awaits treatment. The water treatment plant can be seen in the background. Water from the bags goes through the plant and is treated through a three-step process before being returned to the watershed."

epa
"The 'Michael B' hydraulic dredge barge will remove wet sediment from the bottom of the river."

epa
"Soil Processing Area"

epa
"Mechanical dredging unit working around Osgood Drain confluence."

1915 Gillett and 1922,1983 Pearl Street Bridges over Grand River and Removal of Four Dams in Grand Rapids, MI

Gillett: (Archived Bridge Hunter; Bridge Hunter; Historic Bridges; Satellite)

Pearl: (Archived Bridge Hunter; Bridge Hunter; Historic Bridges; HAER; Satellite)

Richard Gillett Bridge

This was an interurban bridge, it is now a pedestrian bridge.

Trail View, Aug 2025

HistoricBridges_gillett

Looking North:

Photo by Joe Ross via BridgeHunter_gillett

Pearl Street Bridge

HAER MICH,41-GRARA,11--2
2. VIEW SOUTH, NORTH ELEVATION - Pearl Street Bridge, Spanning Grand River at Pearl Street, Grand Rapids, MI

"Significance: The bridge is a good example of open spandrel type arch construction, as described in engineering textbooks published during the first quarter of the twentieth century. This type of bridge construction is labor-intensive, and this design would not be considered cost effective or competitive in today's market place. The bridge setting is prominent and highly visible from adjacent commercial, public and park areas." [HAER_data]

HistoricBridges_pearl

"The loss of the original railings on these bridge is most unfortunate....The Pearl Street Bridge is the victim of another far more serious alteration: it is actually no longer an arch bridge. Take a close look under the bridge, and you will see that all but the outermost parts of the arch bridge were removed, and modern pre-stressed concrete beams (AASHTO girder style) replaced them. This bridge is essentially a modern bridge with a historic arch facade and historic substructure. As such, the bridge has limited historic value. On the other hand, the bridge still retains its historic appearance and still lends attractive architecture to downtown Grand Rapids. The modifications done to this bridge do not represent a "best practice" for restoration, but do represent a good compromise when the demands for retaining a historic structure compete with a need for an efficient non-weight-restricted crossing. It is an better alternative to outright demolition to be sure! At the same time, arch bridges like this can often be rehabilitated for continued unrestricted use without having to replace the superstructure." [HistoricBridges]

Dam Removal

Mlive.com posted
Crews installed a floating barrier near Gillett Bridge to contain sediment as the first step in removing four century-old low-head dams along the Grand River in Grand Rapids.
https://mrf.lu/JzNN

Given the Blue Bridge in the left background, we are looking South at the Pearl Street Bridge.

https://mrf.lu/JzNN, credit Isaac Ritchey

This shows that the Pearl Street Bridge on the left is open spandrel, and the Gillet Bridge on the right is closed spandrel. But my main motivation for this view is to confirm that the head for this dam is very low. This is the southernmost dam. Given that the dam upstream of the Gillet Bridge is Dam #2, this must be Dam #1.

Trail View, Aug 2025 (Satellite)

Dam #2. Again, it has a very small head. This is the first dam to be removed. After the dam is removed rocks will be placed in the river to create eddies and pools of water to help the fish. The removal and restoration contract was approved for $14.5m. [mlive]

Trail View, Aug 2025 (Satellite)

Dam #3. 

Trail View, Aug 2025 (Satellite)

Dam #4.

Street View, Nov 2022 (Satellite)

The removal of this dam is still being studied.

Jim DHaem, Jan 2018 (Satellite)

Keven Craig Fox 17 posted four photos with the comment: "The heavy lifting has finally begun in the city of Grand Rapids to “Restore the Rapids” on the Grand River. These photos are courtesy of the city, and shows construction equipment and workers in the water starting the project. It’s been in the making for many years, but has now come to fruition. Check it out!"

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