Iroquois 1700 Bridge

"TR-189 Bridge"

Most Recent Visit To Bridge: August 13, 2006

This is one of the most vehicle accident-damaged truss bridges I have seen that is still standing. It appears that an eastbound vehicle lost control and crashed into a vertical member on the north truss, detaching and sending it crashing into the river, and also severely bending and cracking the steel on another member. Whoever did this should count their blessings that this sturdy bridge held up and didn't collapse on them. The bridge looks very weird today, with its member missing. The member by the way is still visible in the water below the bridge. It looked like it ripped off clean, meaning rather then bending other parts of the bridge up, the rivets holding the vertical member to the chords popped, leaving behind the plate that the pins go through, and thus leaving the integrity of the pin itself intact.

This bridge faithfully served traffic without failure for probably a century. In one instant however, someone ruined this bridge. In my opinion, there is no excuse for whoever wrecked this bridge, and they or their insurance company should have been held accountable and been required to repair the bridge with attention paid to historic integrity. With this bridge, it looks like the accident happened a few years back, but these incidents happen even today across out nation. In fact in 2006, two through trusses were collapsed completely by either collisions or overweight vehicles. Whoever damaged this bridge essentially vandalized public property (and historic at that) that was serving a useful function and because of their careless driving the bridge sits out of commission. If people would just show some respect for these bridges that have stood for over a century, and carry motorized vehicles that weren't even invented when many of these bridges were built, then accidents on bridges wouldn't happen. And if accidents do happen, intentional or otherwise, someone should have to pay up. I suspect that if everyone crossed this bridge going 10mph then this incident would not have occurred. But along with blind-sighted county engineers demolishing truss bridges, historic bridge enthusiasts have to deal with overweight trucks and out-of-control motorists ruining them as well. There are plenty of slab bridges out there, and if people want to drive like maniacs and get themselves killed, if would be nice if they would go do it on a road without a historic truss bridge on it. There is no way anyone could rip an entire vertical member off a truss bridge if they were driving an appropriate speed for crossing a truss bridge like this (10mph).