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Amazing Old Trestle (a Haupt Bridge)
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<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;"><span style="font-size: small;">It looks this high bridge was originally quite well built.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The piers appear to be finely built of coursed stone masonry, and support intricate timber box trusses having an integrated bowstring feature.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is an interesting combination of features.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I would think that the trusses could have been adequate without the bowstring or timber arch feature.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The boxes alone have their top and bottom chords, so the arch seems redundant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe the combination was just a redundancy fashion of the day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I believe that I have seen that type of timber truss in other old photos.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some of the early arch bar trucks had structural redundancy, suggesting that the designer did not fully comprehend the engineering performance of the structure. </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;"><span style="font-size: small;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;"><span style="font-size: small;">Some of the links mention attempts to burn this bridge to gain an advantage during the civil war.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Apparently the missing box trusses were burned, and the rather spindly pilings and timber bents are a temporary replacement to get the bridge back into service.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It would be interesting to see what this bridge structure looked like in its final days before being replaced by the steel bridge in 1914. </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;"><span style="font-size: small;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;"><span style="font-size: small;">In the link posted by Zwingle above, you can see the old masonry piers of the original bridge on the right side of the current steel bridge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You can see their tops are considerably lower than the existing bridge, which would account for the height of the original box trusses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The wagon road mentioned in some of the information must be that road and small bridge that can be seen in the far lower right of the photo I posted at the start.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, that little stream is not the Appomattox River that required the railroad high bridge, is it?</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span> </span></span></p>
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