Rock Island Swing Bridge, in Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota

[UolCOOT]

I'm trying to locate a historical picture of horses opening and closing the Rock Island Railroad bridge in Inver Grove Heights, MN.Cars would drive on the lower portion, while the trains would run on top of the bridge, as it crossed the Mississippi River. From 1895 until the 50's, horses were used to open and close it. Any railroad afficianados have a picture they could share with me? No one here believes they used horses. If you can help me, please contact me at : [e-mail].    Thanks for your time. UolCOOT

[aricat]

I don't have an answer for you, but I would suggest the Minnesota Historical Society in St Paul. There are some excellent web sites on the bridge on line including Wikipedia and they had no mention of horses being used. I also checked out the book Mississippi River Bridge by Bridge Volume Two by Mary Charlotte Aubry Costello,she mentions nothing about horses.Her father was a long time Rock Island employee and she might know something about if horses were used.

I remember the bridge from the 1960's and 1970's. It was an terrible bridge with very narrow lanes and you were hugging the guardrails and hoping that the guy coming the other way would give you your half of the road. The Rock Island's Inver Grove Yard was just beyond the west side of the bridge.Talk about a weedy yard with bad track, it was one of the worst. Just to the west of Inver Grove was the C&NW"s ex-CGW mainline to Oelwein Iowa.The bridge was used by Rock Island passenger trains until the Plainsman was discontinued in 1970, then only by transfer cuts from Inver Grove to other Twin Cities yards. In the 1970's a train was a fairly rare occurance on the bridge. Newport was a much better place to watch trains than Inver Grove with a lot more action.

[jrbernier]

  The 'Rock Island' bridge was not built by the Rock Island.  It was built by a terminal company so that the CB&Q could deliver livestock to the South Saint Paul Union Stockyards which served Armour and Swift packing.  A new bridge was later built north of the packing houses(and owned by the CGW).  The bridge was used by and later sold to the Rock Island so they could get a connection to other railway yards and Saint Paul Union Depot.  I can remember the bridge in the mid 50's and the road span under the upper track level was quite narrow!  There used to be toll takers at each end of the bridge and it was alternating 'one way' every 10 minutes or so.  The toll taker was removed from the east approach and it became 'two way' with a single toll taker at the west end of the bridge.  I never remember 'horse power'.

  I have heard that the original 'belt' bridge north of the packing plants may have been some kind of manual operation, but it was replaced by a rather standard swing span that may still be in use today by the UP

Jim

[richhotrain]

UolCOOT

I'm trying to locate a historical picture of horses opening and closing the Rock Island Railroad bridge in Inver Grove Heights, MN.Cars would drive on the lower portion, while the trains would run on top of the bridge, as it crossed the Mississippi River. From 1895 until the 50's, horses were used to open and close it. Any railroad afficianados have a picture they could share with me? No one here believes they used horses. If you can help me, please contact me at : [e-mail].    Thanks for your time. UolCOOT

Try contacting John Weeks.  Here is a link to his web site and a lot of photos of the old bridge:

http://www.johnweeks.com/bridges/pages/ms02.html

Good luck,

Rich