Des Moines River Bridge

The east end of the bridge (5th photo in the sequence) makes a lot of noise. The road is closed, due to construction traffic where work is being done on the Kate Shelly bridge. For a Sunday afternoon, on a closed road, there was an awful lot of traffic on this bridge!

The last photo in this sequence is of the High Level Kate Shelly Bridge. That bridge carries the double mainline of the Union Pacific across the Des Moines River and is named for a young woman who, in 1881, risked her life to save a Chicago & North Western Railway passenger express train. The perspective of the photo belies the 184' height of the Kate Shelly Bridge, which was built in 1901 and was the first bridge named for a woman. http://www.americanfolklore.net/folktales/ia.html

The bridge in front of the Kate Shelly bridge is a temporary bridge to allow construction equipment to cross the river.

Webmaster's note: The photos that were here have been incorporated into the main site.

This bridge, on 200th Avenue, is just upriver from the Kate Shelly High Level Bridge. It is a wood decked truss and a cheap thrill to drive across. You can hear the bridge creak when you walk on it, let alone drive on it.

Webmaster's note: The photos that were here have been incorporated into the main site.