Washington Bridge (Washington, Missouri)

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Washington Bridge from the southwest bank

The Washington Bridge is a cantilevered truss bridge over the Missouri River at Washington, Missouri over which Route 47 passes between Franklin County, Missouri and Warren County, Missouri.

The bridge was built in 1934. Its main span is 474.6 feet and it has a total length of 2,561.3 feet and a deck width of 22 feet. Its vertical clearance is 14.6 feet. The bridge carries one lane of automobile traffic in each direction.

The Missouri Department of Transportation shut down the bridge on at 7:30am on 11 August 2007, claiming to have discovered problems during regularly scheduled inspections.^[1] As the bridge is similar to the I-35W bridge which collapsed in Minnesota, locals have speculated that the inspection and closure were related to this incident. The nearest open crossing over the Missouri river is approximately sixty miles from the closed bridge. The bridge was reopened at 9:00pm, but was scheduled for closure again at 7:30am on Sunday 12 August 2007. The bridge is scheduled to be reopened again for good at 9:00pm on 12 August.^[2]