Trains.com

Admiring Union Pacific’s Blair bridge across the Missouri River

Posted by Jim Wrinn
on Wednesday, February 11, 2015

A westbound UP coal train crosses the Missouri River bridge from Iowa into Nebraska. Jim Wrinn photo.
I am a sucker for overwhelming structures, and on Sunday, I got to spend time admiring one of the big bridges in the Midwest, this one over the Missouri River at Blair, Neb. It is a big, imposing, through truss structure that soars into the air. Trains approach it and climb up to it from the Iowa side.

American Bridge Co. built the three spans, totaling about 1,335 feet, in 1924 when the Chicago & Northwestern was running this route. Today, it’s part of the Union Pacific main line across the middle of the country.

In researching the history of the bridge, I learned that the C&NW predecessor here had a car ferry here early on and that during winters when the river froze over, there was even track laid across the ice. Steam locomotives shoved cars out on one side and another engine on the opposite shore coupled up and took them on. The power stayed off the ice, and the light cars made the trip across the frozen water. (Let me say this as a Southern fella, this is just pure WRONG on numerous levels.)

Eastbound pigs and stacks cross the Missouri River bridge as seen from U.S. 30. Jim Wrinn photo.
The first big bridge was built in 1883 and relocated to Wind River, Wyo., when the new spans were installed.

Now for the practical info: Traffic here is fast and frequent, though most of the trains here are westbounds as UP likes to run its eastbounds out of Fremont, Neb., via the Lane Cutoff through Omaha, Council Bluffs, Iowa, and returns to the former C&NW main at Missouri Valley, Iowa. I did catch a rare eastbound – a hot pig and stack train – but otherwise, everything was going west.

Unlike so many magnificent bridges, this one is easy to get to. U.S. 30 runs right beside it. If you want photos, there’s plenty of room to pull off. In fact, it may be too close for good railroad photography – I had to pull out a 14-24mm lens to get the eastbound.

So, there’s another big bridge that I can check off my list. I hope you’re a big bridge fan too, and I hope you’ll let us know what your favorite structure is, who runs there, and what’s the best way to see it safely from public property.

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