Keithsburg Rail Bridge

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Keithsburg Bridge

Carries	Abandoned single railroad track
Crosses	Mississippi River
Locale	Iowa and Keithsburg, Illinois
Design	Truss bridge
Longest span	220 foot Vertical lift bridge
Opening date	Around 1910
Destruction date	June 30, 1981 (main span only)
Maps and aerial photos Street map from Google Maps or Yahoo! Maps Topographic map from TopoZone Aerial image or topographic map from TerraServer-USA Satellite image from Google Maps or Microsoft Virtual Earth

The Keithsburg Bridge was a vertical lift bridge that carried a single railroad track across the Mississippi River between Louisa County, Iowa and Keithsburg, Illinois. The bridge was constructed for the Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway around 1910 and traffic across the bridge was discontinued in the 1970's. After the line was abandoned, the vertical lift was locked in the up position for several years until the lift portion was accidentally destroyed by fireworks and the ensuing fire on June 30, 1981. The 220 foot vertical lift section fell into the river blocking barge traffic on the main channel of the Mississippi River for more than a week until it was removed by the US Army Corps of Engineers. The USGS aerial photo from March 2000 shows the bridge standing but missing its vertical lift section.

This bridge replaced a previous Iowa Central railroad bridge, constructed in the 1880's, that crossed at the same location. The old stone piers from the previous bridge still stand next to the current bridge.

[edit] See also

• List of crossings of the Upper Mississippi River

[edit] External links

• Ward, Vaughn. Rise & Fall of Keithsburg, IL Bridge. Northwestern Lines Magazine. Fall 1984. p52.
• http://eldora.net/lyndon/towns/kiethsburg.html
• http://openweb.tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/1981-7/1981-07-06-CBS-12.html
• New York Times article about span destruction

Bridges of the Mississippi River
Upstream Norbert F. Beckey Bridge	Keithsburg Rail Bridge	Downstream Great River Bridge