The Ol' Toll Bridge...
A week or two ago, as I was driving past the K.O.D. on my way home from delivering my papers, I thought to myself, "I wonder if the old toll bridge is still down there?" So the next day, I went down there and sure enough, it was still there...
The road down to the toll bridge, with the horribly vandalized old toll shack.
The bridge. Built in 1895 by the Pittsburgh Bridge Company, the bridge is a double-deck through truss swing span design, with a width of 18 feet, a clearance below of 19 feet, and a total span of 1661 feet. It was operated by the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad until 1980, when the railroad went out of business. After being closed for two and a half years, a group from Chicago bought the bridge, naming it the JAR bridge. In 1999, the Army Corps Of Engineers disceovered a bad beam during an inspection, and demanded it be replaced, at an estimated cost of 11 million dollars. The owners could not afford this, so the bridge was simply abandoned. In the early 2000's, due to not paying property taxes, the bridge passed into Washington County ownership. The county plans to demolish the bridge, but wont until the estimated 2 million dollars needed are found.
Looking down the bridge towards St. Paul Park.
The center span of the bridge. It is now left open to allow barge traffic to pass.
"St. Paul Park Bridge Willie's Hidden Harbor Marina"
"Straight Ahead Left Bank 1/3 Mile"
"Full Service Gas Ice Bar Restaurant"
The operators shack. One of my dad's friends used to have a job operating the bridge, and he let my dad operate it a few times. He said it was pretty damn cool.
Looking back towards Inver Grove.
If you enlarge this picture, you'll see that there are two abandoned houseboats on that island.
This piece of graffiti makes me laugh.
I have no idea what this thing is. It's not actually connected to anything. My guess is that it's some part involve in the rotating of the bridge that was just dumped here.
An interesting old building down by the K.O.D. This is actually the old IGH town hall. While I was looking at the building, Tony, a former Knowlan's co-worker and now trash collector for the city came up and talked to me for while. He said that they were going to be tearing this building down, but a document I just found on the IGH website said that the city council was reccomending $35,000 to fix this building and another.
Saw this truck coming from the K.O.D.
The road down to the toll bridge, with the horribly vandalized old toll shack.
The bridge. Built in 1895 by the Pittsburgh Bridge Company, the bridge is a double-deck through truss swing span design, with a width of 18 feet, a clearance below of 19 feet, and a total span of 1661 feet. It was operated by the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad until 1980, when the railroad went out of business. After being closed for two and a half years, a group from Chicago bought the bridge, naming it the JAR bridge. In 1999, the Army Corps Of Engineers disceovered a bad beam during an inspection, and demanded it be replaced, at an estimated cost of 11 million dollars. The owners could not afford this, so the bridge was simply abandoned. In the early 2000's, due to not paying property taxes, the bridge passed into Washington County ownership. The county plans to demolish the bridge, but wont until the estimated 2 million dollars needed are found.
Looking down the bridge towards St. Paul Park.
The center span of the bridge. It is now left open to allow barge traffic to pass.
"St. Paul Park Bridge Willie's Hidden Harbor Marina""Straight Ahead Left Bank 1/3 Mile"
"Full Service Gas Ice Bar Restaurant"
The operators shack. One of my dad's friends used to have a job operating the bridge, and he let my dad operate it a few times. He said it was pretty damn cool.
Looking back towards Inver Grove.
If you enlarge this picture, you'll see that there are two abandoned houseboats on that island.
This piece of graffiti makes me laugh.
I have no idea what this thing is. It's not actually connected to anything. My guess is that it's some part involve in the rotating of the bridge that was just dumped here.
An interesting old building down by the K.O.D. This is actually the old IGH town hall. While I was looking at the building, Tony, a former Knowlan's co-worker and now trash collector for the city came up and talked to me for while. He said that they were going to be tearing this building down, but a document I just found on the IGH website said that the city council was reccomending $35,000 to fix this building and another.
Saw this truck coming from the K.O.D.
posted by AP at 10:42 AM
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