Year constructed: 1868
Alternate name: White Water Creek Bridge
Bridge type: Pin-Connected Pratt Through Truss
National Register of Historic Places status:
Listed
Length: 94 feet
Width: 15.1 feet
Spans: 1
FHWA: 146040
Jurisdiction: City of Dubuque
Location: Bergfield Recreation Area at Industrial Park off Charenelle Road in Dubuque, Section 30, T89N-R2E (Dubuque Township)
Details
The White Water Creek Bridge is part of the Dubuque Railroad bridge, built in 1868 to cross the Mississippi River between Dubuque and Dunleith (now East Dubuque), Illinois. After years of promoting for a railroad bridge by various Dubuque citizen's groups, the Dubuque and Dunleith Bridge Company was formed in 1866. In January 1868* the company contracted with the Keystone Bridge Company of Philadelphia to fabricate and erect the bridge's superstructure. Reynolds, Saulpaugh and Company of Rock Island, Illinois, were hired to build the substructure. Work on the first abutment began on January 27th; on December 15th the bridge was completed. Extending 1,760 feet in length, the bridge consisted of six stationary trusses and a 360-foot swing span. All of the fixed spans featured Keystone's patented sectional-tube trusses, which made extensive use of ornamental cast iron compression members and connector blocks. Immediately west of the main bridge over the river's channel was a shorter bridge over a slough. This second structure was comprised of pinned Pratt through trusses, which also employed the classic Keystone configuration. The main bridge was replaced in parts--the swing span replaced in 1893, the easternmost fixed truss replaced with earth fill in 1899, three of the western fixed trusses rebuilt in 1899 and the remaining two fixed trusses rebuilt in 1903. The extensive timber trestle over the west floodplain was replaced with earth fill, and, at some point, the approach bridge over the western slough was removed.
Dubuque County acquired at least two of the spans from this latter structure, using them on county roads. The White Water Creek Bridge in White Water Township is one of those spans. It was moved and re-erected at an unknown date on this rural crossing near the southern county line. Here it has carried relatively light vehicular traffic. The floor system has been modified somewhat to accommodate the wider roadway, but the truss superstructure remains in unaltered and well-preserved condition. (New Paragraph) The importance of the Dubuque and Dunleith Bridge to interstate commerce can hardly be understated. As one of the first permanent bridges over the Mississippi River, it ensured Dubuque's role as a regional trade nexus and, on a broader scope, helped facilitate the western movement after the Civil War. Removed from the context of the original, multiple-span structure, this single span's role on a minor county road is less momentous in its historical contribution. But as one of the last two remaining fragments of the original railroad structure, it enjoys a degree of significance, despite its radical change of setting. The White Water Creek Bridge is technologically significant as one of the last remaining examples in America of cast iron truss construction. Built by one of the country's premier bridge fabricators of the 1860s, it features Keystone's patented cast iron columns and ornamental cast-iron connector blocks. One of Iowa's oldest surviving all-metal bridges, the White Water Creek Bridge is distinguished as a rare survivor from the country's earliest period of all-iron bridge construction [adapted from Fraser 1992].
* Recent research has revealed that the Keystone Bridge Company erected the railroad bridge over the Mississippi River in 1868; however, four years later, in 1872, the company replaced the original western approach trestles with the seven identical iron spans, of which the White Water Creek Bridge is one.