Airtight Bridge

Airtight Bridge
Nearest city: Charleston, IL
Built: 1914
Architect: Claude L. James
Governing body: Local
MPS: Coles County Highway Bridges Over the Embarras River TR
NRHP Reference#: 81000211 [1]
Added to NRHP: November 30, 1981
Carries Township road 275
Crosses Embarras River
Locale 8 miles NE of Charleston, Illinois
ID number 3165
Design Pratt through truss
Total length 188 feet 4 inches
Width 15 feet 7 inches
Vertical clearance 13 feet 7 inches
Opened 1914

The Airtight Bridge is a steel bridge spanning the Embarras River in Coles County, Illinois, in the United States 8 miles (13 km) north of Charleston, Illinois. The bridge was built in 1914 by the Decatur Bridge Company. The architect was Claude L. James. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1981 as survey number 81000211.

In 1980, a dismembered corpse was found on the east bank of the river thirty yards downstream from the bridge, causing quite a stir in the local media. Police investigated for years, but were unable to determine the identity of the victim until 1992, when DNA testing produced a match to a missing person from Kankakee, Illinois. The murder is now in the cold case file of the Illinois State Police.

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