1842+1862+...+1899 CSX/Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac/Aquia Creek & Fredericksburg Bridges over Potomac Creek near Daffan, VA

(no Bridge Hunter; no Historic Bridges; Satellite)

Today's CSX bridge.

Street View, Nov 2024

1842 Bridge

Because the bridge uses the truss design of a covered bridge, I added the label "bridgeCovered" even though it is not covered.

Bridges Now and Then posted
"Potomac Creek Bridge, Aquia Creek & Fredericksburg Railroad, perspective view, April 12, 1863 " (LOC)

I looked for the above photo on LoC to provide a proper acknowledgement. I did not find it, but I did find two more photos. The LoC webpages confirm that these images were photographs. I wonder how long those workers had to stand still given the photographic technology of the 1860s.

LC-DIG-ppmsca-07299
Potomac Creek Bridge, Aquia Creek & Fredericksburgh Railroad, April 18, 1863

LC-DIG-ppmsca-11744
Potomac Creek Bridge, Aquia Creek & Fredericksburgh [sic] Railroad, April 18,1863

Michael Thomas Harvey posted
Potomac Creek bridge c1860

1862 Bridge

Tim Smith commented on Michael's post

This was before the "Beanpoles and cornstalks" bridge.

This was the original bridge that was built in 1842, but was destroyed in 1862 by the retreating Confederate Army.

That same year the United States Military Railroad was formed under the command of Union General Herman Haupt who had been a railroad construction engineer in civilian life. After the 1862 destruction, Haupt, using common infantry soldiers untrained in construction, harvested two million feet of local lumber and constructed a serviceable replacement bridge in only nine days.

Construction of this bridge prompted president Abraham Lincoln to quip "That man Haupt has built a bridge four hundred feet [122m] long and one hundred feet [30.5m] high, across Potomac Creek, on which loaded trains are passing every hour, and upon my word, gentlemen, there is nothing in it but cornstalks and beanpoles." This bridge stood until June 1863. The Union Army built as many as four railroad bridges atop the same abutment over the remaining years of the war.

Here is the first replacement bridge.

usmrr has a lot more information on Herman Haupt and the U.S. Military Railroads.

The ellipses in the dates in the title are because the bridge was rebuilt about four more times during the Civil War. "Around 1899, the bridge was replaced and the south abutment and its approaching right-of-way were abandoned." [wikipedia]

Because the south approach was moved, I checked it out.

1894/98 Fredericksburg Quad @ 125,000

1943/61 Fredericksburg Quad @ 24,000

This image uses a feature of the map viewer that allow a blend of the two maps.

A blend of the two maps.

Today's VA-625 (Leeland Road) was built on the RoW of the old approach until it got near the creek and turned East under the trestle.

Satellite

CSX/L&N Bridge over Apalachicola River near Chattahoochee

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

Andrew Waldo posted three photos with the comment:

Apalachicola River, Florida: Bridge No. 154 over the Apalachicola River, Louisville & Nashville Railroad. This impressive set of bridge types crossing the Apalachicola River, known collectively as L&N’s Bridge No. 154, included Pile Trestle approaches, a 275’ Thru Draw Span, 2 Pony Truss Spans at 115’ 9” each, and a Thru Truss Span at 154’ 5”. Although the Bridge Tender’s House was not photographed, the Pile Trestles supporting its platform are pictured here. When these photographs were taken on 20 February 1917, Bridge No. 154 included sections built/rebuilt in 1882, 1886, 1894, 1908, 1909, 1913, and 1917.

Credit: National Archives & Records Administration, ICC Engineering Field Notes, Louisville & Nashville Railroad, Florida. Digital Image Collection of Andrew Waldo.

All photos and Documents from these records were hand-scanned at the Archives from the originals by, and are in the Digital Image Collection of, Andrew Waldo. For high-resolution scans in archival .tif format, PM me.

Bill Husband: Located near Blountstown, Florida (from Explore Rail History research)

1

2

3

Dennis DeBruler commented on Bill's comment
It looks like it is a lot closer to Chattahoochee, https://maps.app.goo.gl/g9oFNGuB2P6oesP49. 1954/67 Tallahassee topo map with a scale of 250,000.

Bill Husband: Dennis DeBruler I asked Google.Gemini (AI) what was closest!

2011 photo by Ben Tate via BridgeHunter

Christa Berit, May 2025

Dogwood Canyon Mill on Dogwood Creek near Lampe, MO

(Satellite)

417 Drone Shots posted
at Dogwood Canyon

Zen Cat, Oct 2022

Dogwood Canyon posted
Welcome to the Ozarks.

2012 I-580+US-395 Bridge over Galena Creek near Reno, NV

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

This 1737' (530m) long bridge has a main span of 689' (210m). [BridgeHunter]

Street View, Jul 2024

Bridges Now and Then posted
Reno, Nevada's Galena Creek Bridge nears completion, June 18, 2012. (T71024)

Aug 22, 2025: An Arch Bridge over Yellow River Collapsed During Construction in China

(Satellite?)

CNN International posted
The collapse of an under-construction railway bridge over a major river in China has killed at least 12 workers and left four others missing, state media reports say: https://cnn.it/4muQHGl
"Sixteen workers were on the bridge in northwest China’s Qinghai province when a steel cable snapped about 3 a.m. Friday during a tensioning operation....The bridge is 1.6 kilometers (1 mile) long and its deck is 55 meters (180 feet) above the surface of the river below, the English-language China Daily newspaper said."
Dan Gurley shared

Li Zhanyi/Xinhua via apnews

Casey Jones found a lot more imagery than I was able to find.

He found a video of the collapse.

4:35 video @ 0:50

And poor construction practices. No falsework cables should have been slack.

@ 1:53

@ 1:55

I wonder if the cable they were tightening is the one that snapped.

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US-77 1896,1937+1981,83 Siouxland Veterans Memorial Bridge over Missouri River at Sioux City, IA

1896: (Archived Bridge Hunter; Bridge Hunter; HAER)

1981: (Archived Bridge Hunter; Bridge Hunter; John Weeks III; Satellite)

Street View, Sep 2023

John Weeks
This 1,502' (458m) long bridge has a main span of 425' (130m).
The navigation channel is 400' (122m) by 80' (24.4m).
"An inspection in early May, 1982, found a fracture across the full width of the downstream horizontal tie girder. The fracture was heavily corroded, suggesting that the fracture happened just after the bridge was opened. Further investigation revealed that the strength of the steel varied considerably, with some of the steel not meeting minimum strength specifications. The bridge was closed on May 6, 1982. It remained totally closed for 7 months, with 2 lanes reopening on December 9, 1982. The repairs were completed and the bridge was fully reopened on May 9, 1983."
[When I had seen the rehabilitation date of 1983, I wonder what went wrong in less than two years. Now I wonder which country provided the steel.]
"Highway US-77 once ran north and south from border to border. The northern section of the road became redundant when Interstate I-29 was completed. As a result, US-77 was truncated at the interchange located at the north end of the Siouxland bridge."

Street View, Jun 2024

Sujit Ingle, Apr 2023

The 1896 bridge was built with two swing spans because steamboats are what made this town. It was called the Combination Bridge because it originally carried both railroad and vehicular traffic.

HAER IOWA,97-SIOCI,1--2, cropped
2. General View of the Bridge from Prospect Hill, looking SE. - Pacific Shortline Bridge, U.S. Route 20,spanning Missouri River, Sioux City, Woodbury County, IA

HAER IOWA,97-SIOCI,1--1, cropped
1. General View of the Bridge from the South Shore, looking WNW.

A good view of the surviving swing span.

HAER IOWA,97-SIOCI,1--8
8. 3/4 View of Bridge from South Shore, looking NNE.

"The Pacific Short Line Combination Bridge was the work of three prominent names in the late 19th century American engineering: J.A.L. Waddell (chief engineer), Charles Sooysmith's Sooysmith & Company.(foundations and piers), and the Phoenix Iron and Bridge companies (fabricators and erectors). The dates of the Pacific Short Line Bridge (1890-1896) make it among the early largescale works of both Waddell and Sooysmith. It is also one of Waddell.'s and Phoenix's earliest efforts in steel bridge design and construction, at a time when the use of steel was still not universally accepted, particularly for spans of the size of the Pacific Short Line bridge. As constructed, the bridge consisted of two 470' [143m] rimbearing through Pratt swing spans and two 500' [152m] Pennsylvania through trusses. All spans were pin-connected. The bridge was built at least partially as Sioux City's response to changing developments in Upper Missouri transportation systems, as westward running railroads supplanted steamboats, which were instrumental in the city's early growth, as the principal carriers of people, goods and raw materials during the 1880's." [HAER_data]

2009 photo by Jack Schmidt via BridgeHunter

safe_image for The Bridges of Sioux City, Iowa, Photo by Jack Schmidt
The second bridgehunting tour takes us to Sioux City, Iowa. In 2022, a museum curator did a presentation on the city's bridges, dating back to the first crossing in 1865. That presentation is now available for viewing. Enjoy the tour: 

This is that presentation:

51:11 video

"The Siouxland Veterans Memorial Bridge, from Sioux City, Nebraska, to Sioux City, Iowa, was opened to traffic in January 1981. In May 1982 Iowa Department of Transportation personnel discovered a fracture across the full width of the top flange on the down stream tie girder. The investigation into the cause of the fracture included chemical and physical testing and fractographic and metallographic examinations. Results of the latter examinations showed that the fracture originated at a gas-flame-cut edge of the 2 3/4-in.-thick A588 flange plate. It arrested at least once at a depth of 0.37 in. and possibly earlier at a depth of about 0.05 in. before propagating in a brittle mode across the flange. The fracture surface was heavily corroded, indicating that the fracture had occurred long before its discovery. The physical tests indicated that the plate in which the fracture occurred did not meet the specified toughness requirements. Additional tests on samples of material extracted from other parts of the girders revealed highly variable toughness properties, some of which did not meet the requirements of the specifications either." [pubsindex]

"Steel for the bridge was provided by two suppliers, one who furnished most of the flange plates, and the other who furnished the remainder of the flange plates and all of the web plates....A number of locations were found where the toughness did not meet the specified requirement. Locations where 21 /2-in.-thick plates did not meet the requirement were also found. At this point in the investigation, an offer was made to IDOT by the supplier of the fractured plate to replace all flange plates that had been furnished by the supplier. This offer was accepted. Work to replace these flange plates was completed in spring 1983." To replace the flanges, they had to remove the dead load off of the tie girders. To do this, they built falsework and then jacked up the superstructure. The bridge was opened to limited traffic while the flanges were being replaced. [onlinepubs]

1932 and 1952 US-160 Bridges over Swan Creek (part of Bull Shoals Lake) at Forsyth, MO

Lost: (no Archived Bridge Hunter; Bridge Hunter)

1932: (Archived Bridge Hunter; Bridge Hunter; no Historic Bridges; Satellite)

1952: (Archived Bridge Hunter; Bridge Hunter; no Historic Bridges; Satellite)

The 1952 bridge was built when the Bull Shoals Dam was built.

The lost bridge:

Postcard via BridgeHunter_Lost

The 1932 bridge is in the foreground, and the 1952 bridge is in the background.

2012 photo by Larry Dooley via BridgeHunter_1932

Note that there is no truss bridge in this photo. This photo was taken before the Bull Shoals Dam was built and shows the original river level.

Photo by MoDOT via BridgeHunter_1932

This was before the reservoir filled up.

Oct 8, 1952, photo via BridgeHunter_1952 via Missouri State Archives

And after it filled up.

Mar 29, 1953, photo via BridgeHunter_1952 via Missouri State Archives

This is one of many construction photos on the BridgeHunter_1952 webpage.

Mar 1952 photo via BridgeHunter_1952 via Missouri State Archives

417 Drone Shots posted

Forsyth, Missouri 🌉 | Taney County

The first shot with the new DJI Air 3’s 70mm telephoto lens, and what better subject than the two bridges here in Forsyth. The longer focal length really pulls the scene in tight, showing off the red truss bridge against the bluffs in a way the wide lens just can’t. 🚁📸

Loving the extra perspective this second camera gives—plenty more to come as I keep exploring the Ozarks (and beyond). Don't forget to follow me to see more. Thank you.

417 Drone Shots shared

Evidently a lot of rain will put the arch bridge under water. Note that the comment says the Bulls Shoals Lake level was higher than what we see here. Fortunately, a concrete arch bridge should pressure wash nicely.

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