Great Information:
and Welcome Here RRhistoryguy!
I'll relay your info onto Dale (Naniamo73)
And here is a link to a thread from several yeas bak that may interest you:
http://cs.trains.com/TRCCS/forums/t/42151.aspx?PageIndex=1
It is one of my all time favorite Threads here, Naniamo73,[ and a number of others also contributed to it, as well] started it and there is much information on probably, all of the bridges on the Mississippi River from Minnesota to NOLA.
The picture was taken in Winona, MN. It is a great picture of the whole bridge, as all that's left today are 4 sections to the right of the swing bridge. The bridge may be gone but railroading is alive and booming in Winona. I just finished a couple of 11 hour days on the UP local. If it keeps going they will have to add a night job!
I recieved some more information about this bridge from a friend.
http://www.mvr.usace.army.mil/Bosse/Plates/Plate29.htmhttp://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=marquette%20Pontoon%20Bridge&sa=N&tab=wihttp://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/ia/clayton/postcards/ppcs-clayton.html
Now I have to find the time to study these.
Nordique pretty much said what I found out too. Aparently the bridge was hinged on the Wisconsin Side and swung South. The River current was use to open the bridge, and a steam winch was used to close it again. If you look at the terrasever photo that Dale linked to earlier, on the WI side there is a curve in the track where it crosses over the Mississippi before reaching the Island. The switch to the bridge was just to the east of the current bridge.
Apparently the only way you can really tell where the bridge was when the water is high is to look at the younger trees on the banks. There is kind of a "groove" where the trees are much younger on each side, and that is where the approaches were. I know that's what my friend used to point out to me where it was, but even then it's really hard to make out if you don't know what you are looking at.
Noah
In Marquette, the landing of the pontoon bridge was about 300 feet south of the new highway structure, the PDC line exited the bridge, had a diamond with the the Sabula line and proceeded directly west into the yard. The bridge did rise and fall with river levels, small sections of "floating" hinged track connected the bridge rails to the ones on the pontoon- these allowed the bridge to flex as water rose or fell. Due to the new highway bridge construction, and realignment of the MILW tracks to accomodate the bridge, not much is left where the pontoon bridge came ashore, it's a marina now. The north wye and Mason City line were relocated to accomodate the bridge piers and approaches. The Milwaukee Road Historical Society did a very good article on Marquette about 8 years ago complete with aerial photos showing the arrangement before and after the new highway bridge was constructed.
The pontoon bridge itself continued easterly across the river, then across some islands in the center of the river with some slight curvature, then over the river's east channel and onto the southern tip of the island at PDC. When the Mississippi is low you can still see the sawed off pilings of the old bridge sticking up out of the water- winter and fall also are good times to see remnants of the bridge as it cut through the mess of small islands in the river's course.
I created a little map of the area using the Terrasever tiles- I'm not sure how to post it into my message though.
As for New Lisbon- the two coaling towers were specifically installed there to service Hiawatha streamliners as they stopped to make their Valley line connections (train 58 as well)- the towers were removed shortly after the Hi's switched to diesel- the metal water tank was removed as well, those abutments still stick up out of weeds on the south side of the main on the side of the elevation there. The station sign there was installed by the CP/Soo and is not a MILW station board. New Lisbon ha changed drastically since the days of the Hiawathas.
On Terraserver it looks like it might have left the east bank near the diamond and ran across to south of McGregor.
http://terraserver.microsoft.com/image.aspx?T=1&S=12&Z=15&X=813&Y=5955&W=1
From what I've been told the bridge was at most maybe a few thousand feet south from the current road bridge or so. I'm not sure of it's exact path though. I might have to talk to my friend again and see if he can fill me in a little more on exactly where the bridge would have run. If I find out anything new I'll let you know.
Randy, I've heard of that before about the PDC diamond being a "up and over" type, it's an interesting idea to a diamond alright. I've seen one good close up picture of the diamond which shows what you are talking about here:
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=130589
nanaimo73 wrote: The highway bridge at Winona has the same number of crossmembers as the one in the picture, so that is where the photo was taken. I would guess the current highway bridge at Prairie du Chien was built where the Milwaukee Road pontoon bridge ran acrooss the island, and the old road bridge was just to the north. Noah, do you get to New Lisbon ? Are either of these towers still there ? http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=73011
The highway bridge at Winona has the same number of crossmembers as the one in the picture, so that is where the photo was taken.
I would guess the current highway bridge at Prairie du Chien was built where the Milwaukee Road pontoon bridge ran acrooss the island, and the old road bridge was just to the north.
Noah, do you get to New Lisbon ? Are either of these towers still there ?
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=73011
Dale, I do know pretty much for a fact that the MILW Bridge over the Mississippi River at PDC was south of the current road bridge. I go railfanning with a guy who's done a lot of research on railroads around Wisconsin, both first hand and from people he knows who used to work and railfan around the state, and he's pointed out to me where the MILW bridge was (although very little of the grade to it can be seen anymore, and its really hard to make out at all).
I do get to New Lisbon once and a while. I can tell you for sure that there is no such coaling tower at New Lisbon. Infact, the old Depot is also gone, and everything but the wye, the mainline, and one extra track between the wye is gone. I think the extra track I speak of though is one that would have gone under these two towers, the one pictured in the center of the photo you linked to. Not positive on that though, I might be wrong
Here's two shots I took from a few months ago, both of which show the only railroad item besides signals and tracks left in town, a station sign(And I doubt that was originally MILW either):
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=139975
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=140543
Hopefully that answered what you wanted to know.
Noah: Another thing I had heard about this is that the city wants to get the barge transloading facility off of the island, and put it somewhere south of the city, possibly at Crawford. Never heard anything more about that, though.
EDIT: That diamond at Crawford is an interesting critter, the WSOR rails go OVER the BNSF rails, which are continous.
Randy Vos
"Ever have one of those days where you couldn't hit the ground with your hat??" - Waylon Jennings
"May the Lord take a liking to you and blow you up, real good" - SCTV
rvos1979 wrote: I've been out to Prarie by train a few times courtesy of the WSOR, Have had a hard time picking out where the bridge used to be, but I believe it was south of the current US 18 span. As an aside the WSOR was thinking long and hard about removing all of it's island trackage, which is prone to flooding from the Mississippi, and constructing a larger interchange yard at Crawford, just south of PDC. Last time I was out there, it hadn't happened yet.
I've been out to Prarie by train a few times courtesy of the WSOR, Have had a hard time picking out where the bridge used to be, but I believe it was south of the current US 18 span. As an aside the WSOR was thinking long and hard about removing all of it's island trackage, which is prone to flooding from the Mississippi, and constructing a larger interchange yard at Crawford, just south of PDC. Last time I was out there, it hadn't happened yet.
Randy, part of the thing I've heard with the WSOR/BNSF at Crawford is that the BNSF wants to eliminate the diamond if they double track the main through there (I've heard tell they might do maintinence on the old Bridge and turn it into a second main line). The BNSF has offered to put in and pay for a new connection track in the North East quadrant of the current diamond, and putting a long siding down the WSOR to the east of the diamond for interchange. They'd keep the current interchange track, and pull up the diamond then. Theoretically then if the WSOR needed to get to the island trackage, they'd have to make a see-saw movement accross the BNSF to do so, running North on the BNSF till they would clear the new connection track, then backing past the old connection track before making a forward movement through the current interchange track towards downtown PDC. I don't know if it'll ever happen or not, but it's an idea I've heard has been talked about.
Noah Hofrichter
Randy Stahl wrote:Looks like the ex GBW bridge at east Winona, currently owned by the BN.
blhanel wrote:If you look closer at the Terraserver image of the MacGregor highway bridge, you can see that the superstructure is not the same as the bridge shown in the picture. The Terraserver image shows a single span with an upward bowed steel superstructure, no points...
Brian (IA) http://blhanel.rrpicturearchives.net.
Thanks Randy.
Ed, the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific pontoon bridge linking North McGregor (now Marquette), Iowa and Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin opened in 1874 and was abandoned on October 31,1961. This was featured in the January 1952 Trains magazine, (which I don't have). This bridge was also covered at http://archive.ncsa.uiuc.edu/ but this article has been removed. "The Pontoon Bridge at Prairie du Chien was designed and constructed by Mr. John Lawler, to meet the particular wants of that community. It was built at a point where the river is divided by an island and is about 1 1/4 miles in width from shore to shore. Formerly passenger and freight cars were transfered by ferry boats which had to go around the head or foot of the island, making the distance from landing to landing nearly four miles; and when floating ice accumulated the river was frequently impassable. The construction of a bridge of either of the standard descriptions would have been parculiarly difficult or expensive. These circumstances led to the adoption of a system under which the bridge approaches on either shore, and the fixed portions of the bridge in low water and on the island, consist of piles, while in the channels of the river pontoons are placed, which are so combined and arranged as to form a railway bridge when the passage of trains is desirable; while when the use of the channels by steamboats or rafts is necessary the pontoons are temporarily removed. The pontoon in the east channel is made by uniting three ordinary transfer scows which have an aggregate length of 393 feet, and the pontoon in the west channel is a single-deck scow especially constructed for the purpose, 408 feet long, 28 foot beam and 6 feet in depth. Applications for the right to construct bridges of a similar plan at various other points on the Mississippi and elsewhere have been made and granted."
The CMSP&P had similar bridges at Wabasha, MN and Chamberlain, SD.
The Milwaukee road bridge was removed in 1961-1962, so it can't be the bridge at Prarie Du Chien, would have to be at Winona, MN.
I have recently found out that Jim Sands passed away several weeks ago. He had posted hundreds of historical photographs on RRpicturearchives from the Midwest that I have really enjoyed looking at. Many of the pictures there of the Milwaukee Road and the Minneapolis and St. Louis, and across Iowa, came from his collection.
One of these photographs has intrigued me for awhile. It was taken in 1967 and is labelled as McGregor, Iowa. I presume that those are his children in the photograph. McGregor would be the west end of the Milwaukee Road's pontoon bridge from Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, that was abandoned in 1961. I believe the pontoons were north of the road bridge, and there was no swing span.
After looking at the River crossings, I am thinking that this was the Chicago and North Western bridge up at Winona, Minnesota. Can anyone confirm where the photograph was taken ?
Photo http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=72977
Winona http://terraserver.microsoft.com/image.aspx?T=1&S=10&Z=15&X=3044&Y=24395&W=1
McGregor http://terraserver.microsoft.com/image.aspx?T=1&S=12&Z=15&X=811&Y=5958&W=1
Rest in peace Jim, and thanks for sharing your collection.
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