Historic Bridges

Details

Floyd County was first settled in the early 1850s, while Nora Springs was platted in 1857. With the primitive roads of the period, pioneers had a difficult time traveling to trade centers to sell crops and purchase necessities. The nearest major markets were in McGregor and Dubuque, both on the Mississippi River over a hundred miles east. Consequently, citizens of Floyd county eagerly anticipated local railroad construction, and the first trains of the Iowa Division of the Illinois Central Railroad arrived in Charles City in 1868. The following year, the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad was the first to reach Nora Springs. The Burlington, Cedar Rapids & Northern Railroad entered Floyd County in 1871 and passed through Nora Springs en route from Burlington, Iowa, to Albert Lea, Minnesota. By the early 1880s, the route was taken over by the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific, in conjunction with the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad. The Milwaukee and Rock Island lines crossed just west of town at a hamlet known, appropriately, as Nora Junction.

This unique underpass was built by the Rock Island Line in 1889 to carry its tracks over South Hawkeye Street in Nora Springs, apparently during an upgrade of the area's rail lines. Supported by stone abutments, the stone arch grade separation continues to function today, in unaltered, well-preserved condition. This structure is the only stone arch bridge listed on the Iowa Historic Bridge Inventory in Floyd County, thus making it a rare and historically significant example of an early highway- and railroad-related resource [adapted from Hybben, Roise, and Fraser 1992].