Year constructed: 1888; moved 1930
Alternate name: Fox River Bridge
Bridge type: Pin-Connected Pratt Through Truss
National Register of Historic Places status:
Listed
Length: 197 feet
Width: 15.7 feet
Spans: 1
FHWA: 328160
Jurisdiction: Van Buren County
Location: 252nd Street over Fox River, 2.6 miles east of Milton, Section 22, T68N-R11W (Jackson Tonwship)
Details
Located some two miles east of Milton, this long-span through truss carries a gravel-surfaced county road over the Fox River. It is comprised of a single pinned Pratt truss, which was once part of a two-span structure built between Lee and Des Moines counties in 1888. The supervisors from these two counties first met on September 7, 1887, to view the site for a proposed bridge over the Skunk River on the Burlington/Ft. Madison Road. The next day the men issued a joint resolution, stating: "We recognize the need and necessity for a bridge [here] but having lately gone to considerable expense at the Bridgeport and Augusta Bridges, we therefore deem it expedient at the present time to take definite action in this matter." The two counties dickered into 1888 over their respective shares in paying for the bridge's construction, until, finally, in June they agreed to split the cost with Des Moines County paying three-fifths and Lee County paying two-fifths. Walker's Ferry, near the river's mouth, was chosen as the crossing site, and Chicago engineer Horace B. Horton was commissioned to design the structure. He engineered two designs: one featured a single 360-foot span, the other used two 180-foot trusses, both were to be supported by iron cylinder piers. On June 28th the two boards met in joint session at Fort Madison to open competitive bids for the bridge's construction. Low bidder at $9,435, the James B. Diver Bridge Company of Keokuk was awarded the contract for the two-span design. After its completion, the Walker's Ferry Bridge carried traffic for over forty years, before it was replaced with another structure. In the spring of 1930 one of the trusses was disassembled, moved, and re-erected at this rural Van Buren County crossing to replace an 1895 structure washed out by floods. Known locally as the Eisenhower Bridge, it has since functioned in place with no further alterations.
The Pratt truss was the bridge of choice for an overwhelming majority of Iowa county road crossings in the late 19th century. Before the development of steel as a structural material around 1890, all-metal Pratts were executed in wrought or cast iron. Although thousands of iron trusses were erected throughout the state, relatively few remain in use today. The Eisenhower Bridge is distinguished among these for its well-preserved superstructure, its long span length and its association with nationally prominent bridge engineer Horace Horton. The subsequent inter-county move has compromised its locational integrity, but the truss still remains a noteworthy representative of early wagon bridge construction [adapted from Fraser 1991].