The Fort Madison Toll Bridge ( the Santa Fe Swing Span Bridge for the old

Santa Fe Railway The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway , often referred to as the Santa Fe or AT&SF, was one of the largest Railroad classes, Class 1 railroads in the United States between 1859 and 1996. The Santa Fe was a pioneer in intermodal freight tra ...

) is a tolled, double-decked swinging

truss bridge A truss bridge is a bridge whose load-bearing superstructure is composed of a truss, a structure of connected elements, usually forming triangular units. The connected elements, typically straight, may be stressed from tension, compression, or ...

over the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the main stem, primary river of the largest drainage basin in the United States. It is the second-longest river in the United States, behind only the Missouri River, Missouri. From its traditional source of Lake Ita ...

that connects Fort Madison, Iowa, and unincorporated Niota, Illinois. A double-track railway occupies the bridge's lower deck, while two lanes of road traffic are carried on the upper deck. The bridge is about long with a swing span of , and was the longest and largest double-deck swing-span bridge in the world when constructed in 1927. with It replaced an inadequate combination roadway/single-track bridge completed in 1887. The main river crossing consists of four Baltimore through truss spans and a swing span of two equal arms, long. In 1999, it was listed in the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

under the title, Fort Madison Bridge, ID number 99001035. It was also documented as survey number IA-62 by the

Historic American Engineering Record Heritage Documentation Programs (HDP) is a division of the U.S. National Park Service (NPS). It administers three programs established to document historic places in the United States: Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), Historic American E ...

, archived at the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

. Construction and photographic details were recorded in the ''Scientific American'' magazine. The bridge is the western terminus of Illinois Route 9, which continues eastwards towards

Canton, Illinois Canton is the largest city in Fulton County, Illinois, United States. The population was 13,242 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, down from 14,704 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. The Canton Micropolitan Statistical Ar ...

, about , and Peoria, about .

Iowa Highway 2 Iowa Highway 2 (Iowa 2) is a Iowa Primary Highway System, state highway which runs across the southernmost tier of counties in the U.S. state of Iowa. At no point along its route is Iowa 2 more than from the Missouri state line, except ...

formerly reached the bridge from the west. On July 26, 1927, operations were transferred from the original single-track bridge to the current double-track bridge. The first opening for river traffic occurred at 11:58 a.m. on July 26, 1927, for the scow , traveling downriver with no barges attached. The bridge is privately owned by

BNSF Railway BNSF Railway is the largest freight railroad in the United States. One of six North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 36,000 employees, of track in 28 states, and over 8,000 locomotives. It has three Transcontinental railroad, transcontine ...

and is the river crossing for the Southern Transcon, BNSF's Chicago–Southern California main line. In 2022, between 40 and 100 trains crossed the bridge daily, including

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak (; ), is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

's ''

Southwest Chief The ''Southwest Chief'' (formerly the ''Southwest Limited'' and ''Super Chief'') is a Amtrak Long Distance, long-distance passenger train operated by Amtrak on a route between Chicago and Los Angeles through the Midwest and American Southwest ...

''. Amtrak's Fort Madison station is west of the bridge. Per Coast Guard regulations and the BNSF Fort Madison River Bridge operations manual, river traffic has the right-of-way over train and vehicle traffic on the bridge. The durations of openings vary depending on weather, river current, size and number of boats, and, occasionally, mechanical problems. A typical opening for a tow with 15 barges lasts 15–20 minutes. The bridge opens over 2,000 times yearly, an average of more than five times daily.

Automobile traffic

, the upper deck of the Fort Madison Toll Bridge is open to automobile traffic. It is close to semi-trailer truck traffic. The BNSF, which owns and maintains the bridge, has posted the following limits: Gross weight posted as no more than 16,000 Pounds (8 Tons). Width: 8 Ft. Height: 14 Ft. 4 In. Length: 60 Feet.

References

* * * File:Fort Madison Toll Bridge, Fort Madison, Iowa.jpg, The Fort Madison Toll Bridge {{NRHP in Lee County, Iowa Road bridges in Illinois Railroad bridges in Illinois Swing bridges in the United States Truss bridges in the United States Bridges over the Mississippi River Toll bridges in Illinois Toll bridges in Iowa Road-rail bridges in the United States Bridges completed in 1927 Road bridges on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa Railroad bridges on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa BNSF Railway bridges Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Bridges in Lee County, Iowa Buildings and structures in Hancock County, Illinois National Register of Historic Places in Lee County, Iowa Great River Road Drawbridges on the National Register of Historic Places Fort Madison, Iowa National Register of Historic Places in Hancock County, Illinois 1927 establishments in Iowa 1927 establishments in Illinois Historic American Engineering Record in Illinois Historic American Engineering Record in Iowa Interstate vehicle bridges in the United States Steel bridges in the United States

Automobile traffic

See also

References