Kansas River Railroad Bridge No. 2

To answer Kyle,

I do believe (on a guess) there may have been two sets of tracks on the bridge.

According to this site, the bridge was built in 1905, but the west pratt span may have been built earlier than that.

I am thinking (again, on a guess) that the great 1903 flood may have destroyed a previous bridge that was here that may have had two tracks, leaving only the west span from the first bridge.

I do not know for sure...........................

I have seen this bridge before, it almost appears that the west span is twice as wide as the center and east span. The west span is a pratt truss and the center and east spans are parker. Why did they use 2 different designs, and why is 1 span wider than the other 2?

I was out at this bridge today 1/27/2008 at 4:40PM, and took this picture.

It is still there, still not in use, but still looks good.

The dashboard of my van got in the photo, but you can still clearly see the bridge.

Enjoy the photo!

Correction to my last comment Nov. 28.

It was not this bridge that was Rock Island's, it was Kansas River Railroad Bridge No. 4

Sorry about that mixup.

I have read in a book that this bridge was somtimes called

The Kansas City Rock Island Railroad Bridge

in a book that came out not long ago

From old maps I've looked at, I would guess that this bridge was probably built around 1904 or 1905. It was clearly there as of 1906 but probably did not precede the Flood of 1903.

This bridge was part of the Kansas City Southern.