CN - Flood Gate Tunnel Bridge - Cairo, IL
Posted by: 
YoSam.
N 37° 01.274 W 089° 11.141
16S E 305567 N 4099461
Close to the girder bridge but separate.
Waymark Code: WMWN9J
Location: Illinois, United States
Date Posted: 09/21/2017
Views: 0
County of bridge: Alexander County
Location of bridge: Big Gate Tunnel and Sycamore St. overpass, Cairo
Built: 1903
"Overview
Flood gate and tunnel on US 51 at the north end of Cairo
Location
Cairo, Alexander County, Illinois
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Status
Open to rail traffic above and highway traffic below
History
Built on the plan of Gatum Dam on the Panama Canal and cost a
little more than $11,000 dollars.
Builder
- Stupp Brothers Bridge & Iron Co. of St. Louis, Missouri
Railroads
- Cairo Electric & Traction Co.
- Canadian National Railway (CN)
- Streetcar
Design
Tunnel completed in 1903, while the gate was finished in 1914. The gate itself weighs 80 tons, is 60 ft. wide, 24 ft. high and 5 ft. thick. The counterweights used to raise and lower the gate weigh almost as much as the gate itself, so that it will only require the effort of 2 men at each windless, one windless on each side of the gate, to raise the gate when it has been lowered. The cables used in the "crabs" in raising and lowering the gate are about 2 inches in thickness."
~ Bridgehunter