1911 Armour Swift Burlington (ASB) Bridge over Missouri River in Kansas City, MO

(Bridge Hunter; Historic Bridges; HAER; 3D Satellite)

Burlington as in CB&Q.

Street View, Jun 2022

Randy Volskay posted
I find draw spans intriguing, and I'm sure I'm far from the only person, with such fascination. This span is the Armour-Swift-Burlington drawbridge spanning the Missouri River, between downtown Kansas City, and North Kansas City, Missouri. Like a couple other draws, in the area, it once featured an auto roadway, on the upper deck, with rails on the lower. This span was peculiar in that the lower chords simply pulled up through the girders of the main structure, the main span did not mover. It was raised, this day, but I never found out if it was because of the flooding, or a standard exercise. River traffic had been suspended, at that time.

This was a dual deck bridge that carried tracks on the lower deck and, initially, a trolley on the upper deck with road outriggers from the upper deck. Later, the trolley was replaced by two more (skinny) lanes of traffic. Except for the navigation span, the tracks were in a through truss and the trolley was on a deck truss. For the navigation span, the trolley was in a through truss and the tracks were on a deck that hung from that truss via steel columns called hangers.

Jim Pearson Photography posted

Kaw River Railroad lease unit WAMX 6033 slowly moves across the Kansas River into at Santa Fe Junction with a daily mixed freight on June 29th, 2022.

According to Wikipedia: The Kaw River Railroad (reporting mark KAW) is a Kansas City, Missouri railroad, established in June 2004. Twelve miles of original track served the Kansas City Southern Railroad and its customers in Kansas City and Union Station. The original KAW was a Kansas City Southern Railway Company property and was the first shortline Watco began operating for KCS, serving customers in the Greater Kansas City area and interchanges with the BNSF, KCS, and Union Pacific. 

The April 2005 expansion was a BNSF property serving customers in Clay County, Missouri and interchanges with the BNSF at Birmingham, Missouri. The KCTL interchanges with the BNSF, ICE, KCS, Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific at Kansas City.

Tech Info: DJI Mavic Air 2S Drone, RAW, 22mm, f/2.8, 1/2000, ISO 110.

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/kaw-river-railroad-lease-unit-wamx-6033-at-kansas-city-mo-jim-pearson.html
Jeff Cook: If you look closely, the white building with the big trusses on top is the arena formerly known as Kemper Arena. It was host to the 1976 Republican National Convention, the 1988 Final Four, the Big 8 and Big 12 basketball tournament, numerous NCAA tournament games, many concerts and other events. The first concert I ever attended in person was Elvis Presley there in 1977, just 2 months before his death. Many great memories in that building. The KC West Bottoms area is still thriving with railroad traffic these days.
Robert Youngers: Jeff Cook and Kemper is where the stockyards used to be. There was tons of tracks here according to the map I have (it shows the RI, Santa Fe, Katy, Milwaukee Road, and BN had small yards at Kemper). Santa Fe had a line that ran along the flood wall to the RI bridge where it merged with the Frisco and a KCT line that continued on from BN Jct. At the RI bridge it became the Kansas City Connecting RR which ran apparently underneath the MP and UP lines (and also connected to them) and ended at a small yard on the north side (there is a trench visible on Google that should be where the line was: 
https://www.google.com/maps/@39.098222,-94.6100193,194m/data=!3m1!1e3
 And BN (Burlington) had a small yard where that construction lot is. And the KCS line to Armourdale was along the north side of the river.
Tim Parker: Are there any pictures of the flood bridge up? Do they open it often for maintenance?
Derek Brady: Tim Parker it's rarely opened except in severe flooding conditions. It isn't a simple process like a drawbridge. They do maintain it, just not to the full extent of opening it.
I've seen a few photos, but I don't know where. It hasn't been opened very often, early 50's (54 ish I think) and '93 and maybe once more. They had it ready to open when I was working out of Herington to KC , same with the bridge across the Ks river at Topeka, but they didn't raise either. By ready I mean rails cut, people on standby just hanging around waiting for the word to start the lifting process and put flood gates in.

 

kcengineers
"The bridge is one of only two of its type ever built. To satisfy the railroad's need for the railroad tracks across the bridge to be as low as possible, and the riverboats' need to have enough clearance under the bridge, Waddell developed a unique design that had automobile traffic on a top deck and rail traffic on a lower deck that could be raised to allow riverboats to pass. The lifting of the lower deck was accomplished by telescoping the hangers of the lower deck into the truss members of the upper deck, thus allowing automobile traffic to continue even when the lower deck was raised."

Randy Perkinson posted four photos with the comment:

This is the Armour-Swift-Burlington Bridge (or just ASB Bridge) across the Missouri River at Kansas City, Missouri.

This historic 1912 bridge once carried both road and rail traffic, but the roadway deck was removed following completion of the Heart of America Bridge just downstream.

The main span railroad deck is suspended from the upper level, stationary truss and can be raised via a system of cables, pulleys, and counterweights up into the truss to allow river boats to pass under.

This bridge is an American Society of Civil Engineers National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark.

Timothy Noles: Designed by Hardesty Hanover founder JAL Waddell!

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Google Book, p772

Old Postcard from Bridge Hunter

Randy Volskay posted
 NS transfer run crosses the Armour-Swift-Burlington draw bridge, in Kansas City, Mo. This is a pretty unique span. The truss sits above what used to be the highway deck, and the vertical plate columns would lift the track girders to the required height. The highway was moved, about 25 years ago, but the railroad portion, obviously, still moves along.

Postcard Digitally Zoomed

On top of the navigation channel truss, above each hanger, was a sheave (pulley). On both sides of each portal was a drum with grooves. On each side of the adjacent road deck was a line of sheaves. These sheaves allowed steel cables to be strung from the top of each hanger to its own counterweight. (Actually, the end of the suspended deck must have had a couple of cables going directly to the suspended deck without a hanger because I don't see a hanger and I see two smaller counterweights.

The portal photo below shows the road configuration after the trolley tracks had been removed.

photo from MO,48-KANCI,16--9 from mo0450

Digitally Zoomed from the .tiff copy

This closeup shows how the cables passed over the end of the bridge. The shaft on the right goes into the machinery house. There are gaps between the cables compared to the number of groves in the drum because each cable is wrapped more than one revolution around the drum and then connected to a counterweight. This provides enough friction so that this powered drum can raise and lower the track deck. (The counterweights should be adjusted so that it takes about the same amount of power to lower the deck as it does to raise it. I know when they paint a drawbridge in Chicago they have to adjust the counterweights to compensate for the change of the bridge weight caused by the paint job.) It appears that two steel cables are used for each hanger/counterweight connection.

Initially, the deck could be raised in 50 seconds, but due to the age and condition of the machinery, it now [1984] takes about three minutes. The synchronization of the two sets of machinery at either end is handled by a counterweighted rope drive connecting opposite motor shafts. The motors are connected electrically and both operate simultaneously. In case either should be out of service, the lifting deck can be operated by a single motor from either end, the machinery at the opposite end being operated through the rope drive. Limit switches cut off the current to the motors and apply the brakes near each limit of movement. [HAER, p10]

modot_293A_004, July 14, 1951
Disasters, Floods, 1951: Three unidentified men examining flood damage on the washed out railroad level of the ASB Bridge over the Missouri River, Clay County

Randy Volskay posted
Coming home, today, and the old ASB draw bridge, across the Missouri River, in Kansas City, was raised (all the other spans were open, as well). This isn't a frequent event, and I've never been fortunate enough to have seen it.

James Clary posted
One from Kansas City
Blair Denny When I worked for the KCS as a conductor and engineer, we delivered empty coal trains to BNSF Murray Yard in North Kansas City from the KCS's Knoche Yard in Kansas City over this structure. (More often we were routed over the Kansas City Terminal and BNSF along the Bluff Track to the Hannibal Bridge.) This photo of the ASB Bridge is looking north over the Missouri River. The large span over the river's channel lifts vertically.
(Facebooked)

Edward Schlag posted
The Missouri was running fast and high that day. ASB RR Bridge in action back in August, 2011.
Edward Schlag I was there one day when it went up. The noise the bridge and cables made is indescribable! Very cool.

Marty Bernard posted

What Bridge Is This?

This is a Duane Hall photo. The hard to read processor's date on the slide seems to be August 1984. Does the color of the bridge look right? Just beyond the bridge, another bridge is under construction (?).

[EDIT] The Armour-Swift-Burlington Bridge, also known as the North Kansas City Bridge and the LRC Bridge, is a rail crossing over the Missouri River in Kansas City, Missouri, that formerly handled automobile traffic. Wikipedia

Also watch it move: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFVVs8fMnCw

John Perkowski: Yep, the ASB. You’re looking SW to NE, or from KCMO to Northtown. The bridge going up is the Heart of America, or MIssouri Highway 9, and it makes landfall near the new KCMO US Courthouse.
Sawyer Regensberg: I thought this was ASB. Sure has heck saw the real thing often enough!
Fun (and totally unrelated) fact; there’s a sunken LCVP landing craft...with a STEEL hull no less...under the south end of the bridge. You can see it when the rivers down. They were built just upriver and I suspect that one wasn’t sealed correctly and sprang a leak, being rammed ashore to try and save it

Marty Bernard shared

I was looking for views of the Buck O'Neil Bridge, and I found this view. It strikes me that the river level is rather high. But this is the only view available from this location so I can't look at other dates.

Street View, Jun 2015

Steve Monroe posted six photos with the comment: "Lift for barge traffic-Missouri River. Still in use."

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Chicago's 1849 Flood

Paul Petraitis posted
Here's the only copy I've seen of Polycarpus Von Schneidau's daguerreotype of the aftermath of the March 12, 1849 "spring freshet" flood that damaged bridges and dock facilities from Peoria to Chicago...its our town's oldest photograph!

Paul Petraitis posted
Earliest daguerreotype of Chicago,wreckage in the Chicago River from the spring freshet March 1849, looking NE, photo by Von Schneidau...the original plate is some where in an eastern collection.
Lorri Weiskopf Redmon

Never heard of a "freshet"

Interesting. Thanks.

https://images.maritimehistoryofthegreatlakes.ca/51680/data

Patrick McBriarty shared
Patrick McBriarty

Admin

This was the aftermath of a spring thaw and flood where the Des Plaines River over spilled its banks and flowed into Mud Lake and into the South Branch creating a rush of water, ice and debris which piled up against the bridges (pontoon float bridges) that were successively destroyed pushing the mess and boats in the river into downtown with some being flushed out into Lake Michigan. As of course the Chicago River ran into the Lake and was not reversed until 1900. This story was told in my book “Chicago River Bridges” and in the PBS documentary “Chicago Drawbridges.”

https://vimeo.com/75579587

Terry Gregory

This is a woodcut from a daguerreotype that was taken on March 12, 1849. It was discovered in December, 1897 in an old vault. John Carl Frederik Polycarpus von Schneidau (1812-1859) is considered Chicago's first photographer (daguerreotypist).

https://chicagology.com/prefire/prefire123/

While reading about Chicago bridges, I read about a flood that washed away several of the bridges. Back then, when the Des Plaines River would flood, the river water would flow across Mud Lake and into the Chicago River. And, of course, back then the Chicago River still flowed through downtown to Lake Michigan. As we are reminded during heavy rains and the flooding of the homes on a peninsula in Des Plaines, the watershed of the Des Plaines River is large enough to easily overflow its banks near Chicago.

When they built the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, in some sections the contractor was paid to dig a new channel for the Des Plaines River. to build a flood control levee along is east side, and then to dig the CS&SC channel.

Update:

safe_image from a Neil Gate post

The 1849 Calamity on the Chicago River not only wiped-out a river full of vessels but destroyed the city's entire river infrastructure and... there was the loss of life too.

Read about the resilience of Chicago and see an actual Daguerreotype photograph of the disaster.

CLICK TO READ ─► https://drloihjournal.blogspot.com/2017/11/calamity-on-chicago-river.html in my Digital Research Library of Illinois History Journal™

BNSF/CB&Q 1984 Bridge over St. Croix River at Mississippi River (Prescott, WI)

(Bridge Hunter, 3D Satellite)

See "Lost/CB&Q Depot" for a topo map and 1939 aerial photo of the region.

Bob Freitag shared
BNSF lift bridge, Prescott, WI from BNSF Historical Society Facebook Page.

Carolyn Susor commented on Bridge Hunter: "I call this the "Mickey Mouse" bridge because the tower sheaves look like Mickey Mouse's ears."

Ted Gregory updated
Ted GregoryTed and 1 other manage the membership, moderators, settings, and posts for Fascinating Railroad Structures. The BNSF (CB&Q) drawbridge across the St Croix is actually on the MN/WI state line. In this view, I am standing on the Prescott, WI side. This bridge can be a serious bottleneck as its double track on both ends. This is BNSF's Twin Cities to Galesburg, IL mainline. At Galesburg, IL, BNSF comes in from 6 different directions in to a massive hump yard (most traffic continues to Chicago).
Marty Bernard The BNSF does have a line from Savanna to Galesburg. Don;t know what shape it is in.
Ted GregoryTed and 1 other manage the membership, moderators, settings, and posts for Fascinating Railroad Structures. Jeff Marty I believe traffic splits near Savannah at Plum River. Priority traffic heads east to Rochelle and Aurora. Freights drop south thru Denrock, Barstow, Colona, Orion, Rio, Galesburg. South from Plum River is also old Q.
I havent beeb south of Savannah to Galesburg yet. Track looks really good on Google maps. I saw an auto rack train at Gburg, a rail train near Rio, on Google satellite. All I could tell you is the amount of traffic that runs through Rochelle on BNSF is nowhere near what runs out of the Twin Cities.

2 of 9 photos posted by Marty Bernard.

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7 and 8. Burlington Northern EMD SD40-2 7913 built June 1979 as CS 7913, became BNSF 7913, and seen in Prescott, WI April 23, 1994. That's the St. Croix River Bridge. The St. Croix meets the Mississippi just to the left (west) of the photo. Bill Kuba photo, Iowa Chapter NRHS Collection

Paul Schmidt: At one time the house in the foreground was owned by the Burlington and into the BN years for the bridge tender. The bridge was never terribly busy with boat traffic so he could handle the job even at night on call. Come over and open and close and go back to bed.

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7 and 8. Burlington Northern EMD SD40-2 7913 built June 1979 as CS 7913, became BNSF 7913, and seen in Prescott, WI April 23, 1994. That's the St. Croix River Bridge. The St. Croix meets the Mississippi just to the left (west) of the photo. Bill Kuba photo, Iowa Chapter NRHS Collection

Zach Stagman posted
Prescott WI lift bridge

Tom Lietz posted three photos with the comment: "South bound container train crossing the lift bridge in Prescott, WI.

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Robert Heathorn posted
BN crossing the Mississippi river to Prescott WI. No date.
Richard Fiedler shared

Marty caught the predecessor bridge.

Marty Bernard shared
5. The CB&Q's St. Croix River Bridge, Prescott, WI 1964.
Marty Bernard updated
CB&Q Bridge over the Croix River, Prescott, WI
This is the Q's crossing from Minnesota to Wisconsin as this train was doing  on June 25, 1964.
Marty Bernard posted, same comment

Marty Bernard shared
6. The CB&Q's St. Croix River Bridge, Prwescott, WI, 1964

Marty Bernard posted
This CB&Q Switch Tenders Shack is in Burns, MN at the bridge over the St. Croix River. At the other end of the bridge you can see a little of the town of Prescott, WI. To the right a few hundred feet is where the St. Croix River joins the Mississippi.

Pennsy Cummings Branch

Dennis DeBruler posted four photos with the comment:

A Joe Usselman photo, used with permission.
Joe's comment: "A crappy shot of the BRC while standing on the former PRR Cummings branch in Chicago in 2010."
Bob Lalich commented: "The ex-PRR Cummings Branch was abandoned in the early 70s I believe, and the bridge over the BRC was removed to provide better clearance. It branched off the Ft Wayne line just west of Rock Island Jct, passed over the BRC to South Works, Rock Island and BRC to 100th St tracks on its own bridges, then paralleled the BRC down to 105th St."
Additional comments are on the photos.

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The train in the background on the left is on the BRC-NS/Pennsy connector. It is one of the few tracks left in the Rock Island Junction. The bridges from left (north) to right are a B&OCT remnant of a Strauss trunnion bascule, 2 NYC abandoned lift bridges, a hole where a PRR lift bridge used to be, the NS/PRR lift bridge, and the Skyway.

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This abandoned overpass over 95th street is a remnant of the branch. The trees verify that it has been abandoned for a long time.https://www.google.com/maps/@41.7227536,-87.5479789,113m/data=!3m1!1e3

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This 1938 aerial photo caught a train on the branch so it is easy to follow the route of the branch.

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The dark diagonal line at the top center of this 1938 aerial photo is the Cummings branch. It connected with railroads that served Wisconsin Steel that was south of 106th. This photo excerpt shows just part of the Wisconsin Steel complex.
Tony Margis: Wonder who gets credit for the research and posting of this 1938 screenshot?
Dennis DeBruler

Tony Margis It is my own work. In my blog,

https://industrialscenery.blogspot.com/.../pennsy...,

I provide a link to the file from which I cropped it,

https://clearinghouse.isgs.illinois.edu/.../0bwq05006.jpg.

I am a heavy user of the ILHAP photos:

https://prairie-research.maps.arcgis.com/.../index.html...

Bob Lalich: Dennis DeBruler - the ex-PRR Cummings Branch was abandoned several years prior to the closing of Wisconsin Steel. The line was severed at Rock Island Junction by the early 1970s. The line was originally built to serve the predecessor of Wisconsin Steel. It also served the grain elevator seen in the right center of this aerial photo. That elevator was retired and removed in the mid-60s. I believe the Cummings Branch fell into disuse afterwards, since PRR could access Wisconsin Steel and the Chicago West Pullman & Southern via the Calumet Western RR.
Ean Kahn-Treras: I was of the understanding that the Cal n’ Western ended at a yard north of Irondale around 112th or 116th St. I’m having a tough time picturing it now exactly.
Would the Cal n Western right of way extend all the way up to the Short Line and Rock Island east-west tracks just north of 95th St then? Or just far enough north to hit the CWPS house at 104th-ish?
Bob Lalich: Ean Kahn-Treras - the Calumet Western ended in the tangle of tracks just north of 106th St. It connected to the Rock Island, Cummings Branch, CWP&S and BRC.

(CSX+SEPTA)/Reading 1912 Bridge over Delaware River at Yardley, PA

(Bridge Hunter; Historic Bridges has 11 bridges in Buck County, but not this one; HAER; 3D Satellite)

Photo from HAER PA,9-YARD,8--1 from pa3720
[We see the piers of the previous Whipple truss bridge.]

Jim Perry posted
Reading RR bridge over the Delaware River. CSX & SEPTA use it now.
Shane Blische This concrete arch bridge at Yardley, P.A. was built by Philadelphia & Reading Railroad in 1913, replacing a much older wooden truss bridge co-built in 1876 by the North Penn Railroad and Delaware & Bound Brook Railroad. These two companies were constructing the National Railway which was intended to compete with Pennsylvania Railroad's New York Division (today the NorthEast Corridor). The NPRR an D&BB were absorbed into P&R by 1879. P&R reorganized as Reading Railroad (RDG) in 1924. Used by SEPTA's West Trenton Line and CSX's Trenton Subdivision, this bridge sees approximately 30 trains a day. Norfolk Southern crosses the Delaware River at Phillipsburg, N.J.-Easton, P.A. on the former Central Railroad of New Jersey truss bridge.

I need to remember to look at the comments before I note an image. Some comments indicated the right side is bogus. I think the left side is legit because it has the abandoned piers.

Historical Philadelphia City posted

Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Delaware River Bridge (1925 & After)

Railroads powered Philadelphia’s industrial strength along the Delaware River waterfront.

Trail/lawsuit/UP/Katy (MKT) Bridges over Missisouri River at Boonvilee, MO

(1874 Bridge Hunter, 1896 Bridge Hunter, 1932 Bridge Hunter, no Historic Bridges, John Marvig, Satellite)

1932 Bridge Hunter has a timeline of the saving of this bridge. Of note, the MO AG sued the MO DNR director to not give the bridge back to UP. UP wanted to move some of the spans to another project.

The rails-to-trails web-presence

Wayne Lammers posted four photos with the comment:

Hi. I'm a new member to this FB page. These are some of my Boonville, MO Katy (MKT) railroad bridge collection. This bridge was built and finished in1873. It was changed over the years and was given to the city of Boonville. We are presently converting it to be a large part of the Missouri Katy Trail State Park. If there is interest, I will post more images of our beautiful 408 foot lift span bridge. The last photo is what it looks like now.

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Construction of the MKT railroad bridge in 1872.

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This is the south Boonville entrance to the finished, MK&T RR Bridge. Just look how they built bridges back some 145 years ago!!!

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This is the reconstruction of the bridge in 1886.

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From the center of the Missouri River at Boonville, MO

(new window)  Shot in 1986. They were still running with cabooses!


(new window)  I shoved the position indicator quite frequently.

Katy Bridge Boonville posted
An awesome image of the bridge during the flood of 1903
Charles Wells Sure looks like "Everything" is under water over at Franklin! Think this was far more a common occurrence than one might imagine, especially during spring and late fall! Too bad the Katy did not build farther up on higher ground!

The US Army Core of Engineers supports a 9-foot channel on the river to Souix City, IA. [USACE] A 2-million pound, 408' long lift span is rather impressive. If it is locked, it would have to be high enough to clear pushboats (towboats). Fortunately, that is not near as high as the old steamboats needed. I have written about preserved lift bridges that have added ramps up to the locked lift span. Of course, I now can't remember where I wrote that. And Google's Blogspot broke the author's search function on April 3, 2018, so I'm not even going to try to find the preserved lift trail.

Looking at some of the elevation shots, this bridge was built for 9-foot channel barge traffic, not steamboats, because the towers are so short. It looks like even fully raised, ramps on the bridge would have to go up just 20 to 30 feet high. It is interesting that I can't find any info on the plans for the lift span. Are they going to hire a state park ranger to operate it or are they going to lock it in the up position and build ramps? The state park system staffing a lift bridge would be a notable preservation, and tourist attraction, option. But if Missouri politicians are as incompetent as Illinois politicians, the state park system won't be funded to do anything noteworthy. (For example, the Illinois state park closed their Tunnel Hill State Trail facility.)