Photos
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Overview |
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Close-up of main span |
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Crossing the bridge Photo taken Feb. 2004 by Brian Frierdich |
Facts
- Overview
- Through truss bridge on the Union Pacific Railroad over Osage River at Osage City
- Location
- Cole County, Missouri
- Status
- Still in use
- Design
- From west to east:
One pony plate girder span
One riveted, 5-panel Pratt through truss with vertical endposts
Five pony plate girder spans
- Approximate latitude, longitude
- +38.55241, -92.02666 (decimal degrees)
38°33'09" N, 92°01'36" W (degrees°minutes'seconds") - Approximate UTM coordinates
- 15/584812/4267558 (zone/easting/northing)
- USGS topographic map
- Osage City
- Inventory number
- BH 21328 (Bridgehunter.com ID)
Comments
This bridge was once a through truss with a lift span to allow steamboats to pass on the Osage River. The plate girder decks replaced the through trusses in the 1990s (or thereabouts). I haven't been there for quite a while, but I read that the UP wanted to add a second parallel bridge to eliminate a bottleneck caused by two lines from each direction having to go down to one at the bridge. They wanted to use the steel from the old MKT bridge at Boonville, but a deal by one state agency to sell the state-owned bridge at Boonville to the UP has been blocked by another agency that wants to preserve the MKT bridge for use by the Katy Trail (hike-bike trail using the old MKT right-of-way that now detours over the US 40 bridge to reach Boonville).