Turtleville Iron Bridge - Shopiere, WI
N 42° 33.946 W 088° 57.884
16T E 338732 N 4714466
The Turtleville bridge carries Hwy 51 across Turtle Creek. It was built in 1887 by the Wisconsin Bridge and Iron Company to carry horse and carriage traffic. It was repaired in the 1970's and continues to carry traffic today.
Waymark Code: WM2F5K
Location: Wisconsin, United States
Date Posted: 10/23/2007
Views: 77
From the Library of Congress web site:
"On June 21, 1887, at the offices of Charles Woirick, Town Clerk of Shopiere, the Town Board of Turtle received proposals for three iron bridges over Turtle Creek, at Shopiere and at Turtleville. Contracts for the three bridges were awarded to the Wisconsin Bridge and Iron Company for $5,875. The Turtleville Iron Bridge is the only of three bridges remaining.
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The Turtleville Iron bridge is significant as a very early, representative Pratt Full-Slope overhead metal highway truss bridge. It is also one of the oldest of the remaining overhead truss bridges in the State of Wisconsin. The bridge has aesthetic interest with its decorative portals and unusual triangular builder's plates.
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The Turtleville Iron Bridge is a wrought iron, single span, Full-Slope Pratt through truss. Its overall length is 147 feet, 4 inches, with a span length of 141 feet, 4 inches; its overall width is 16 feet, 2 inches. The bridge has built up members, looped eyebars with pinned connections (lower chord eyebars are punched), roller-nest bearings, and stone abutments. The beams are rolled-section, and the stringers rest directly on a concrete seat. A "Bridge Inventory report" indicates that the stringers are replacements, possibly from another structure, and that the lower-chord eyebars are out of position on the pins, suggesting that there have been rather extensive floor-system repairs. The wood-plank deck, a subject of concern to the town in the 1970's, has been replaced with the present metal grid sometime since 1973.
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The bridge, which was built for horse-and-carriage traffic, needed rather extensive repairs by the 1970s. After inspecting the iron bridge, one highway commissioner stated, "If a truck hit one of the members of that bridge, it would go down like a sack of potatoes." Soon afterward, the town stabilized the bridge and replaced the stringers and deck.