Snowden Bridge | |
---|---|
Coordinates | 48°00′00″N104°05′44″W / 48.00000°N 104.09556°W |
Carries | Rail traffic (formerly carried automobile traffic) |
Crosses | Missouri River |
Locale | Richland and Roosevelt counties Montana |
Characteristics | |
Design | Vertical-lift bridge |
Total length | 1,159 feet (353 m) |
Height | 108 feet (33 m) (towers) |
History | |
Construction end | December 1913 |
Statistics | |
Toll | formerly tolled for automobiles |
Location | |
Snowden Bridge is a high-clearance, vertical-lift railroad bridge, built in 1913, that spans the Missouri River between Roosevelt and Richland Counties in Montana, USA, between Bainville and Fairview, Montana, and near Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site and the ghost town of Mondak near Montana's eastern border with North Dakota. Snowden Bridge is a near twin of the Fairview Bridge, which crosses the Yellowstone River in North Dakota, both bridges having been built by Montana Eastern Railway within 10 miles (16 km) of each other over different rivers in different states. [1]
The designer, John Alexander Low Waddell (1854–1938), based the Snowden Bridge on the South Halsted Street Bridge (1893) in Chicago. When completed, Snowden Bridge was the longest (1,159 feet (353 m)) vertical-lift bridge in the world. [2] Its cost was $465,367, equivalent to at least $10,000,000 at the beginning of the 21st century.
The War Department required a movable span on the grounds that large steamboats might venture up the Missouri during the month or so that the river was navigable that far north. A kerosene engine in the lift house could raise it 43 feet (13 m) in about thirty minutes. In theory, the movable span might also be lifted by a hand-turned capstan. The span was last raised in 1935 and the lift machinery was removed in 1943. [3]
In 1925, a plank roadbed was built for one-way vehicular and foot traffic, while the bridge continued to be used by the Great Northern Railroad. Although a long bridge with one-way traffic and shared with railroad trains should have been spectacularly hazardous, a 1981 study found that it was "so dangerous that it [was] safe" because drivers were extraordinarily cautious when crossing it. [4]
In 1977, when the Burlington Northern moved to exclude motor vehicles from the bridge, funds for a modern road bridge were appropriated. Snowden Bridge remained usable for vehicular traffic until 1985, when the MonDak Bridge was completed nearby in North Dakota.
The Yellowstone River is a tributary of the Missouri River, approximately 692 miles (1,114 km) long, in the Western United States. Considered the principal tributary of upper Missouri, via its own tributaries it drains an area with headwaters across the mountains and high plains of southern Montana and northern Wyoming, and stretching east from the Rocky Mountains in the vicinity of Yellowstone National Park. It flows northeast to its confluence with the Missouri River on the North Dakota side of the border, about 25 miles (40 km) west of Williston.
A swing bridge is a movable bridge that can be rotated horizontally around a vertical axis. It has as its primary structural support a vertical locating pin and support ring, usually at or near to its center of gravity, about which the swing span can then pivot horizontally as shown in the animated illustration to the right.
A truss bridge is a bridge whose load-bearing superstructure is composed of a truss, a structure of connected elements, usually forming triangular units. The connected elements, typically straight, may be stressed from tension, compression, or sometimes both in response to dynamic loads. There are several types of truss bridges, including some with simple designs that were among the first bridges designed in the 19th and early 20th centuries. A truss bridge is economical to construct primarily because it uses materials efficiently.
A vertical-lift bridge or just lift bridge is a type of movable bridge in which a span rises vertically while remaining parallel with the deck.
Dr. John Alexander Low Waddell was a Canadian-American civil engineer and prolific bridge designer, with more than a thousand structures to his credit in the United States, Canada, as well as Mexico, Russia, China, Japan, and New Zealand. Waddell’s work set standards for elevated railroad systems and helped develop materials suitable for large span bridges. His most important contribution was the development of the steam-powered high-lift bridge. Waddell was a widely respected writer on bridge design and engineering theory, as well as an advocate for quality in higher education engineering programs. The company he founded in 1887, 'J.A.L. Waddell, Consulting Engineer,' would eventually become the modern day Hardesty & Hanover, a leading moveable bridge engineering firm. Many of Waddell's surviving bridges are now considered historic landmarks.
Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site is a partial reconstruction of the most important fur trading post on the upper Missouri River from 1829 to 1867. The fort site is about two miles from the confluence of the Missouri River and its tributary, the Yellowstone River, on the Dakota side of the North Dakota/Montana border, 25 miles from Williston, North Dakota.
The Industrial Canal is a 5.5 mile (9 km) waterway in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. The waterway's proper name, as used by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and on NOAA nautical charts, is Inner Harbor Navigation Canal (IHNC). The more common "Industrial Canal" name is used locally, both by commercial mariners and by landside residents.
The Delair Bridge is a railroad bridge with a vertical-lift section that crosses the Delaware River between Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Pennsauken Township, New Jersey, just south of the Betsy Ross Bridge. The two-track bridge is part of Conrail Shared Assets Operations and is jointly used by Norfolk Southern Railway and CSX Transportation freight trains, as well as by the New Jersey Transit Atlantic City Line service.
The Armour-Swift-Burlington (ASB) Bridge, also known as the North Kansas City Bridge and the LRC Bridge, is a rail crossing over the Missouri River in Kansas City, Missouri, that formerly also had an upper deck for automobile traffic.
The Meridian Highway Bridge is a bridge that formerly carried U.S. Route 81 across the Missouri River between Nebraska and South Dakota. The Meridian Highway Bridge connects Yankton, South Dakota with rural Cedar County, Nebraska. The Meridian Bridge is a double-deck bridge, with the top level having carried traffic into South Dakota from Nebraska, and the lower level having carried traffic into Nebraska from South Dakota. It was closed to all traffic in 2008, but reopened for use only by pedestrians and bicycles in 2011.
Amtrak's Thames River Bridge spans the Thames River between New London and Groton, Connecticut.
Mondak is a ghost town in Roosevelt County, Montana, United States, which flourished c. 1903–1919, in large measure by selling alcohol to residents of North Dakota, then a dry state.
The Amtrak Old Saybrook–Old Lyme Bridge is a railroad bridge that carries the Northeast Corridor over the Connecticut River between Old Saybrook and Old Lyme, Connecticut. It is the southernmost crossing of the river before it reaches Long Island Sound. The bridge is a truss bridge with a bascule span, allowing boat traffic to pass through. The bridge is owned by Amtrak; it is used by Amtrak Northeast Regional and Acela intercity trains, Shore Line East local trains, and Providence and Worcester Railroad freight trains. A $1.3 billion replacement bridge is planned to begin construction in 2024.
The Norwalk River Railroad Bridge is a swing bridge built in 1896 for the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. It currently carries Amtrak and Metro-North Railroad trains over the Norwalk River.
Dock Bridge is a pair of vertical lift bridges crossing the Passaic River at Newark, Essex County and Harrison, Hudson County, New Jersey, United States, used exclusively for railroad traffic. It is the seventh crossing from the river's mouth at Newark Bay and is 5.0 miles (8.0 km) upstream from it. Also known as the Amtrak Dock Vertical Lift, it carries Amtrak, NJ Transit, and PATH trains. It is listed on the state and federal registers of historic places.
The Pequonnock River Railroad Bridge is a railroad drawbridge over the Pequonnock River in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Owned by the State of Connecticut and maintained and operated by both Amtrak and Metro-North Railroad, it is also referred to as Pequonnock River Bridge, PECK Bridge, and Undergrade Bridge 55.90. Currently the bridge is part of the Northeast Corridor line, carrying rail traffic of Amtrak and Metro-North, as well as freight trains operated by the Providence & Worcester Railroad.
The Fairview Lift Bridge, also known as Great Northern Railway Bridge 3.2, was built in 1913. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997. It was built by Gerrick & Gerrick of Steele, North Dakota to cross the Yellowstone River. It is one of two almost identical bridges the Montana Eastern Railway built within ten miles of each other which cross different rivers in different states. Its near twin is the Snowden Bridge which crosses the Missouri River in Montana. It is rumored that the body of a lynched railworker and criminal, J.C. Collins, is inside the one of the concrete abutments of the bridge.
Hardy Bridge is a Warren through truss, three-span, two-lane bridge in the western United States. It crosses the Missouri River and is located at milepost 6 on Old U.S. Route 91, about fourteen miles (23 km) southwest of Cascade, Montana, which is southwest of Great Falls.
Nohly is an unincorporated place in Richland County, Montana on the Missouri River and on a BNSF Railway line (originally the Great Northern Railway. The Library of Congress holds a collection of photographs of a vertical lift bridge in Nohly that spans the Missouri River, variously called the Snowden Bridge, Nohly Bridge, and Great Northern Railroad Bridge, built in 1913 for the Great Northern with subsequent construction work in 1925.