Year constructed: 1870
Bridge type: Rigid-Connected Pratt Pony Truss
National Register of Historic Places status: Bridge is un-evaluated in its current location
Length: 79 feet
Width: 16 feet
Spans: 1
FHWA: 083820
Jurisdiction: City of Independence
Location: Pedestrian bridge on the Liberty Trail in Independence, Section 4, T88N-R9W (Sumner Township)
Details
Originally located northwest of Hazleton, this short-span pony truss carried a gravel-surfaced county road over Otter Creek, but was moved to a the Liberty Trail for pedestrian use. The structure is a wrought iron, rigid-connected Pratt truss, supported by iron tubular piers. The archaic web configuration and composition of the truss members indicates a very early construction date for this bridge, although its history in the county records remains somewhat clouded. The original construction of the bridge is undocumented, but the truss is similar in detain to others fabricated by the Wrought-Iron Bridge Company of Canton, Ohio, in the late 1860s and early 1870s. In April 1873 the Buchanan County Board of Supervisors received a petition from William Bruce and others for a bridge near the center of Section 4 of Hazleton Township, the location of this truss. The following January the board contracted with the King Iron Bridge Company to build a new iron structure to replace the existing Cutshall Bridge over the Wapsipinicon River in Perry Township. As part of the contract, King was to move the earlier spans to new crossings--one over Count's Creek in Perry Township and the other over Otter Creek northwest of Hazleton. This truss is apparently that second span, moved by King in 1874 to this location and re-erected on iron cylinder piers. (This supposition is made somewhat more tenuous by a citizens' petition made for a bridge at this location in 1896, which may have been for a replacement span.) Although its history is unclear, this diminutive pony truss is clearly among Iowa's earliest wagon bridges. As such it is an important early remnant of transportation in the state as the counties were beginning to develop their road and bridge systems [adapted from Hybben, Roise, and Fraser 1992].