On the Mississippi River at St Louis there’s the MacArthur Bridge, which is a railroad bridge and used to have a vehicle deck for auto traffic until that was closed in 1981. Currently the MacArthur, along with the Merchant’s Bridge upstream, is used by freight railroads and Amtrak to get in-and-out of St Louis, MO and from-and-to Illinois. Someone on the Historic Bridges of the U.S. website claims this bridge would be replaced in or around 2015. Though the poster might be confusing the 2015 date with the completion of the future I-70 highway bridge, would the current owner, the Terminal Railroad Association, even pay to replace the MacArthur? I guess a replacement bridge will probably cost $100 or more The MacArthur is a high-span bridge, as opposed to the more common low-span swing or a lift-span. The Merchant’s and the highway-only McKinley are older than the MacArthur, but are in better shape.
The McKinley is in better shape? I know they recently resurfaced it for highway movements, but I would be surprised if they would allow a single SD-70 to cross it. I always wondered if they considered this bridge for rail traffic should congestion issues arise in the future.
Does anyone know when the last freight train crossed the McKinley? Any pictures? Did diesels ever cross it, or was it all IT electrics?
As for the MacArthor, I will believe its replacement when I see it considering they are still using the Eads bridge for light rail traffic.
Gabe
If I were the TRRA and could get a replacement bridge for around a hundred bucks, I’d go for it! But that might just be me…
[tup] That - and better quick put in an application for some of that there “stimulus” money ! [swg]
- Paul.
Gabe,
The McKinley bridge did see diesel traffic in the last days of the Illinois Terminal- the IT ran SW1500s and small switchers over the bridge to deliver newsprint to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and handle business to other industries located on the IT’s passenger line into downtown St. Louis. I think the last runs by a train over this bridge were in 1978- I don’t know if it’s there anymore, but there used to be Norfolk and Western logos on the bridge. After the bridge was condemned in 2001and closed to vehicle traffic, the bridge underwent a full overhaul and rebuilding to support auto traffic in 2007, although it can handle that I very much doubt it will ever be used for rail service again. During the rebuild the rail deck was removed and replaced from the center spans. (I remember as a kid, we’d drive over the bridge on the center lanes and the old IT rails would poke through the asphalt patches. Also driving in the center was a lot less hairy than drving in the outer lanes!) That said the approach spans to the bridge that the IT built were spindly wooden affairs on the east side, which have been mostly torn down in the past 10 years (some sections were burned by arsonists). The west approach was steel- but the tight curves and the location of where the line went (ran south to the “subway” and the old IT station and dead ended there) makes it highly improbable that freight traffic would ever resume using this bridge. Also the states of Illinois and Missouri now own the bridge (it was previously owned by the city of Venice, IL after the IT/NW vacated it. ) and despite the rebuild I seriously hesitate to say the McKinley is in “better shape” than the MacArthur. (Even the Eads bridge had to undergo major overhauls to allow light rail and traffic to use it again.)
One of the other things that I have seen involving the MacArthur, is the plans to build the new span immediately south of the exisiting bridge. Awhile back the Post-Dispatch ran