Cairo Rail Bridge
Cairo Rail Bridge | |
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.jpg) | |
| Coordinates | 37°01′23″N 89°10′32″W / 37.023056°N 89.175556°W |
| Carries | Single track of Canadian National Railway (formerly Illinois Central Railroad) |
| Crosses | Ohio River |
| Locale | Wickliffe, Kentucky and Cairo, Illinois |
| Characteristics | |
| Design | Simple truss bridge, with steel trestle approaches |
| Total length | 20,461 ft (6,237 m) (including approaches) |
| Longest span | 518.5 ft (158.0 m) |
| History | |
| Opened | October 29, 1889, rebuilt 1949-1952 |
| Location | |
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Cairo Rail Bridge is the name of two bridges crossing the
George S. Morison through-truss and deck truss bridge, replaced by the current bridge in 1952. The second and current bridge is a through-truss bridge that reused many of the original bridge piers. As of 2018, trains like the City of New Orleans[1]
travel over the Ohio River supported by the same piers whose construction began in 1887.
Original bridge
On July 1, 1887, construction began on the first
$1.2 million for the substructure alone. In order to comply with regulations meant to allow steam boat travel on the Ohio, the bridge was required to be 53 feet (16 m) above the river's high-water mark. This resulted in the structure extending nearly 250 feet (76 m) from the bottom of the deepest foundation to the top of the highest iron work. The bridge, substructure and superstructure
weighed 194.6 million pounds (88,270 t), excluding the approaches.
On October 31, 1895, a
1812 New Madrid earthquake which at 8.3 was the biggest recorded quake in the contiguous United States.[2]
Cairo bridge's two 518.5 ft (158.0 m) main spans were the longest pin-connected Whipple truss spans ever built. Pier IX, the largest, alone weighed 11,000 short tons (10,000 t). At the time, the bridge was the largest and most expensive ever undertaken in the United States. At 10,580 feet (3,220 m), it was the longest metallic structure in the world. Its total length was 20,461 ft (6,237 m) including wooden approach trestles. Its construction completed the first rail link between Chicago and New Orleans and revolutionized north–south rail travel along the Mississippi River.[3]
See also
References
- ^ "City of New Orlean - Route Guide" (PDF). Amtrak. 2004. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-02-05.
- ^ "Historic Earthquakes: Near Charleston, Mississippi County, Missouri - usgs.gov - Retrieved August 27, 2009". Archived from the original on 2012-07-07. Retrieved 2017-08-28.
- ^ Historic American Engineering Record (Library of Congress). Survey number HAER NE-2. pages 221-261.
Further reading
- Cook, Richard J. (1987). The Beauty of Railroad Bridges in North America -- Then and Now. ISBN 0-87095-097-5.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cairo Rail Bridge.
- Cairo Ohio River Bridge at Bridges & Tunnels
- Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) No. IL-36, "Cairo Bridge"
- HAER No. NE-2, "Nebraska City Bridge" includes information about the Cairo Rail Bridge
- Illinois Central Railroad Bridge[permanent dead link] at Illinois Historic Sites Inventory
- Historic Bridges of the United States (original bridge)
- Historic Bridges of the United States (second bridge)
Bridges of the Ohio River | ||||
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