Wabash Bridge

Infobox_Bridge
bridge_name= Wabash Bridge

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caption= The Wabash Bridge looking southeast
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carries= 1 track of Norfolk Southern
crosses= Mississippi River
locale= Hannibal, Missouri and Illinois
maint= Norfolk Southern Railway
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design= 5 Truss spans with Vertical lift over main channel
mainspan= convert|409|ft|m|0
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coordinates= coord|39|43|27|N|91|21|44|W|region:US_type:landmark
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The Wabash Bridge carries rail lines across the Mississippi River between Hannibal, Missouri and Illinois.

History

It has been a vertical lift bridge since 1994, but it was originally constructed as a swing span. The vertical lift span was relocated from a bridge over the Tennessee River at Florence, Alabama to increase the width of the navigational channel. During a three day outage, the previous span was removed and the replacement span was installed to minimize impact to traffic. Originally constructed for the Wabash Railroad, currently owned by Norfolk Southern Railway.

May 3, 1982 a 250-foot truss span was struck by the towboat "Northern King" and collapsed into the river, closing the river to traffic for 9 hours. The tug lost power to one of its three engines while pushing 12 grain-filled barges in heavy current and struck the span knocking it into the river, entangling the tug and several barges. 3 barges broke loose and drifted downstream, missing Mark Twain Memorial Bridge. The bridge was owned by Norfolk and Western and the span was repaired. [United Press International. Barge Rams Miss. Bridge, Blocking River Traffic. May 3, 1982.] [Associated Press. River Traffic Back To Normal After Barge Accident. May 4, 1982.]

Gallery

References

ee also

*List of crossings of the Upper Mississippi River

External links

* [http://www.hanmo.com/history.html Hannibal's History]
* [http://www.americanbridge.net/projects/struct/detail.php?jobnum=P203BR American Bridge projects - Hannibal]
* [http://www.modjeski.com/projects/servproj/hannibal.htm Modjeski Projects - Hannibal]

Crossings navbox
structure = Bridges
place = Mississippi River
bridge = Wabash Bridge
bridge signs =
upstream = Quincy Memorial Bridge
upstream signs = East
downstream = Mark Twain Memorial Bridge
downstream signs =