July 22, 2015: The “Hardin City Bridge” is not in its original location. Marker at top of entrance on the other side says “Western Bridge Works, Fort Wayne, Ind., 1879.”
The Chambers Ford Bridge in southeast Tama County was offered for sale before it was demolished and replaced. Now another historic Pratt truss in Iowa is doomed in the same way.
The Fort Atkinson Bridge, on the Turkey River just north of that town, was built in 1892, according to BridgeHunter. This bridge was on the original route of present IA 24 until the entire route east of Lawler was graded on its present alignment in 1932.
The bridge has been closed for years and has become a nuisance. County engineers want to get rid of the liability, reports the Decorah News. The story does not say if the bridge would be replaced, although given that it’s been closed and IA 24 is a decent enough alternative it probably won’t be.
But that’s not the only bridge that can be yours after shipping and handling fees! (Land not included.)
The Waukon Standard reports the Iowa DOT has four bridges up for “adoption”:
- Black Hawk Bridge in Lansing, currently in use and set to be replaced by 2025
- Eastbound US 30 over the Cedar River, which is only from 1953 but historic in its construction type as a “welded I-girder bridge” and being torn down in a matter of weeks
- The Hardin City Bridge northwest of Steamboat Rock, built in 1879, relocated after replacement in the 1980s
- A bridge over the Boone River northeast of Renwick, closed for some amount of time. It is an Iowa Bridge Company bridge from 1912, a “polygonal-chorded Warren truss” style immediately rendered obsolete by Iowa Highway Commission design standards. (The replacement design was the familiar pony truss seen here.)