Quincy Rail Bridge

Quincy Rail Bridge
Quincy Rail Bridge
Coordinates	39°56′30″N 91°25′51″W / 39.94167°N 91.43083°W
Crosses	Mississippi River
Locale	West Quincy, Missouri and Quincy, Illinois
Characteristics
Design	Underdeck truss with overdeck truss across navigable portion of river channel
Location

The Quincy Rail Bridge carries rail lines across the Mississippi River between West Quincy, Missouri, and Quincy, Illinois, USA. It was originally constructed for the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, a predecessor of BNSF Railway.

From the 1950s until 1971 it served the Kansas City Zephyr and American Royal Zephyr daily passenger trains between Chicago and Kansas City. It served Amtrak's Illinois Zephyr from Chicago to West Quincy, Missouri, from 1971 to 1993.

Since the Great Flood of 1993 the Amtrak Illinois Zephyr and Carl Sandburg services terminate at the Quincy station, although after the passengers have disembarked the trains do cross the bridge to the BNSF Railway yard in West Quincy, where the equipment is oriented in the proper direction for the return trip on the wye and is stored until the next departure. This Mississippi River crossing does serve as a backup route should the Fort Madison Toll Bridge crossing be unavailable.

Original bridge

The first structure at this location was completed at 10:00 AM on November 7, 1868 when bridge engineer Thomas C. Clarke tested the structure with the crossing of locomotive engines. The bridge and a total of two miles of track formed a new connection between the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad and the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad. Built by the Quincy Bridge Company and its president Nathaniel Bushnell, the bridge was a swing span, wrought iron Pratt truss which cost $1,500,000.^[1] The 362-foot long swing truss created two spans of 181 feet. Sixteen fixed spans complete the river crossing to make the bridge 3,189 feet long (2 spans at 250 feet, three spans at 200 feet, and eleven spans at 157 feet). A second bridge across Quincy Bay (the waterway between present-day Quinsippi Island and the city of Quincy) included another draw span.^[2]

References

^ "Quincy Railroad Bridge: The Formal Opening-Testing Its Strength and Capabilities-Report of the Engineers-Banquet, &c". The Chicago Tribune. XXII (132): 2. November 9, 1868. Retrieved April 18, 2021.
^ Clarke, Thomas C. (1869). Van Nostrand, David (ed.). "Clarke's Quincy Rail Bridge". Van Nostrand's Eclectic Engineering Magazine. III (XIX). New York: D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc. (published July 1870): 49–52. Retrieved April 18, 2021.

Original bridge

References

See also