Iroquois 1850 Bridge

"TR-224 Bridge"

Most Recent Visit To Bridge: August 13, 2006

In terms of connection and where rivets and bolts are on the bridge, Pratt through truss structure reminds me of Ontario's KH-21 Bridge, which is a bridge showing the transition from rivets to bolts, where some elements of the bridge have rivets and others have bolts. The 1955 construction date given for the bridge seemed like it matched up with the rivet/bolt combination design of this Iroquois County bridge, however I located a Cambria steel stamp on the bridge. Bethlehem Steel acquired all the Cambria steel property in 1923, so the name was likely faded out rather soon after that date, and certainly wouldn't be around in 1955. This bridge is suspiciously similar to the 1900 Bridge which had a 1916 construction date listed. The only real difference between the two bridges is the connections on the 1900 bridge are riveted. My guess for the 1850 bridge is that the bridge might have been built around 1915-1920, and in 1955 received heavy renovations which included replacing riveted connections with bolts.

This bridge features a portal bracing that uses the exact same layout as its sway bracing. There are six panels to the structure. There are channel railings on this bridge, which are very similar to those seen on all of Iroquois County's older truss bridges, which make me wonder if the railings, which look original to me on any of the Iroquois County bridges, might in fact be clever replacement railings that are really not original to any of these bridges. It seems odd that all of Iroquois County's bridges have these channel railings regardless of construction date.