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C.B.& Q. Bridges in La Salle














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The following photos are of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad Bridge which crossed the Illinois river near the ICRR bridge. The "Q" went under the IC bridge on the north shore of the river.
This branchline off the mainline at zearing IL was referred to as the Streator branch. A smaller trestle crossed the I&M canal over lock 15. The river bridge was built in the 1860's and was once the Illinois Valley Northern railroad and in the 1890's it became the C.B. & Q.
(Special thanks to those whose pictures are here below. Some pics are unknown and if you know who was the photographer, please inform me.))

The first style of lift span on the CBQ
cbqrrrivertrainbridgeflood.jpg
Flooded river photo taken from top of ICRR bridge looking West

The Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad bridge over the Illinois River at La Salle, Ill., as originally built, consisted of five 148-ft. pin-connected truss spans. It is a single-track Pratt structure, each truss having six equal panels. The United States Government required that a movable span be provided with a clear headway of at least 40 ft. above high water level, when open. It was decided to make one of the fixed spans movable in the manner outlined in diagram below. The maximum lift is 32 ft. Towers, having front vertical columns, were built at the channel ends of the span.

Located 'bout200ft west of Illinois Central bridge
lasalleqliftbridge.jpg
Thanks to Eugene Smania for locating this info.

cbqbridgee.jpg

strobel-vertical-lift-lasal.jpg

The old CB&Q bridge seen above was put in place in 1913. It was replaced by the one below in 1933.  On Sept 29 1961 the bridge was struck by a barge and the CB&Q RR rushed to fix it. The track was knocked six inches out of line. In 1980 the CB&Q bridge would be dismantled and the railroad branch abandoned from La Salle to Streator.

The 2nd style of lift bridge on the CBQ
cbqliftbridgelasalle.jpg
looking NW on Aug 21 1933

Waters were high again on the Illinois river
highwateratqbridge.jpg

Notice men standing atop lift span
oldcbqilriverbridge.jpg
I believe this was the first style lift span in this photo

buzziiaisslides0014.jpg

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Here below are pictures when the bridge was being removed in 1980. The river was shut down for 48 hours to barge traffic.

Moving barge in place to remove span
preptotakeoutliftspan.jpg
1980

Barge is in place to unfasten lift span
positioningbargetotakeoutspan.jpg
June 1980

cbqlasallebridge1980final.jpg

C.B. & Q. Bridge over Illinois River at La Salle
cbqliftbr.jpg
Photo from atop ICRR bridge

CBQ bridge plans at LaSalle
cbqbridgeplans.jpg

From the ICRR bridge this was the view
cbqlasallebridge1980final_0002.jpg
Barge passes under CB&Q bridge 1980

1980 CBQ Bridge
cbqlasallebridge1980final_0004.jpg

Taking the center lift span out 1980
cbqlasallebridge1980final_0005.jpg

1980 Building a temp road to take out spans
cbqlasallebridge1980final_0025.jpg































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