Kalamazoo River Railroad Bridge

Most Recent Visit To Bridge: April 21, 2006

Historic and structural significance are the words that best describe this amazing bridge. This bridge is without a doubt in the top five for most unusual and significant railroad bridge in Michigan! Railroad pony truss bridges are extremely rare, especially in Michigan. The bridge is also significant as a multi-span truss structure here in Michigan. In addition, the design of the members and chords on this bridge are highly unusual also. They are not i-beams or box beams of any type as is common on most truss bridges. Rather, they are angled steel beams or simply plates. The result of this is a very odd appearance. The members appear paper thin when viewed from beside the bridge, and very wide and bulky from a distant side view such as the one shown on this page. Another thing with this bridge also is that the outriggers for the trusses extend to the inside of the bridge rather than the outside of the bridge, as seen in highway pony truss bridges such as the Nicol Road Bridge. This particular outrigger design is apparently not as unusual for a railroad pony truss however. The actual truss design of this bridge is a two span Pratt pony truss with riveted connections. Each span has nine panels. The bridge carries one set of tracks. Steel on the bridge was fabricated by Carnegie Steel. The bridge sits on stone piers and abutments. Ancient, weathered remains of wooden posts sticking up under the water beneath this bridge suggests that a wooden trestle style structure may have preceded this bridge.

The Kalamazoo River is strangely devoid of railroad truss bridges, despite its size. Deck plate girders, wooden structures, and beam bridges rule the waters. This is most certainly the most interesting railroad bridge on the river, and appears to be the only railroad truss bridge in the entire river!