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Key Facts |
Bridge Name | Type | Road | Location | City | Crossing |
| Hopewell Indian Mounds Railroad Bridge | Truss | Railroad (Rail-Trail) | Kent County, MI | Grand Rapids | Grand River |
I did not get very good side view of this bridge as the above photo shows, although my detail shots came out fine. I will have to return here to get better full view photos!
This is a very old railroad swing bridge, with a construction date of 1890. The bridge replaced a movable wooden structure. The existing bridge totals 550 feet, and is composed of three through truss spans, plus one 138 foot through truss swing span. A single deck plate girder span provides an approach at the southeast end. Before the bridge was converted to a rail-trail bridge, a 400 foot wooden structure provided an approach from the northwest. Much of this wooden structure stands, but is disconnected from the truss bridge to allow the trail to intersect with another trail perpendicular to the bridge.
The truss spans are all pin connected, and are extensively latticed and v-laced. The swing span even features v-lacing on the top of the top chord, and the stationary spans feature lattice on the top of the top chord. Both of these characteristics are highway uncommon, in spite of the fact that the other Grand Rapids Swing bridge has the v-lacing on its top chord.
This swing bridge ceased to swing in 1907 when boats stopped traveling the Grand River. The bridge carried trains up until 1975. The bridge was designed to carry a single set of tracks. Today the bridge has been converted for use as part of a rail-tral.
While I think its great this bridge is being used for a rail-trial, I dislike the ugly cyclone fence railings. They should have used pole railings like in downtown. It would also be nice to see the bridge actually restored, which would include painting the bridge. I did appreciate the fact that they posted an informative plaque about the bridge however. That is where a lot of the info you see on this page came from. Usually, the rail-trails people do not post anything about the historic bridges on their trails. It was a pleasant surprise with this this bridge.
