Ferry Service between IL-1 and KY-91 over Ohio River

(Satellite, 15 photos)

Satellite

A satellite image (on the right) caught the ferry in transit. And it has an 18-wheeler in the center.

On one of my trips back to Chicagoland from Kentucky, I skipped my usual I-57 route and went out of my way so that I could ride this ferry. We arrived at the apron at 3:00.

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3:04:34  About four minutes later, the ferry had finished loading at the Illinois side and was pulling out. The towboat was in the process of turning around for the trip to this side. More about "turning around" below.

3:07:44  The above image was digitally cropped out of a photo that had this framing. I had not switched to my 55-200mm lens so I was shooting with my 18-55mm lens. Fortunately, that is good enough to get timestamps and the position of the ferry in the following photos as it crossed the Ohio River. It looks like it is going to head straight to the apron in this shot. But instead, it does quite a bit of maneuvering to deal with the current of the river. The river is flowing from right (east) to left (west).

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 3:11:11

3:11:20  As with drawbridges, cranes, etc., it is the fiddly bits at the end that take time.

3:11:24  After I noticed the propwash on the left of the pushboat, I noticed that there is a gap between the ferry and the east side of the apron. No wonder the guy at the gate has not opened the gates yet.

3:11:37  The big propwash indicates that a significant amount of power was needed to shove the ferry a little bit to the east.

 3:11:52  The helper is verifying the gap is closed.

 3:12:05  And opening the gates.

 3:12:27  So the traffic can leave.

3:12:46  Again, the truck goes in the middle.

After I parked the van, I got out to check things out. They don't bother to tie up the ferry for the short stay at the apron. They let the engine run to produce thrust to keep it shoved up against the apron. I believe this is called "keeping station." I've also seen this done when pushboats change crews.

That's my van at the head of the line. It must have been just us and the pickup truck on this crossing.

3:15:48  You can tell the boat was built as a pushboat because of the steps that would allow a crew to get on top of an empty barge. They have added a bracket to the center of the bow that is pinned to...

...a bracket added to the side of the ferry at its middle. As soon as it has pulled away from the apron, the rear of the boat is shoved away from the ferry and...

...pushed on around until...

...

 ...it is in position to push the ferry.

3:16:29

 3:16:38  We say goodbye to Kentucky.

As we saw in the satellite image, it throws a pretty big propwash when pushing the ferry.

3:20:10  We are getting closer to Illinois.

3:21:56  I got back in the van so I would be ready when they opened the gate since I'm the first one that needs to get off. The GPS understood we were in the river.

3:22:04  This was taken through the front windshield of the van. Four vehicles were lined up for the trip back.

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™