Black Hawk Bridge

Infobox_Bridge
bridge_name= Black Hawk Bridge


caption= View from northwest, showing Wisconsin shore, with a barge crossing underneath (Library of Congress/HAER)
official_name=
also_known_as= Lansing Bridge
carries= 2 lanes of IA 9 and WI 82
crosses= Upper Mississippi River
locale= Lansing, Iowa and Crawford County, Wisconsin, River Mile 663.4
maint= Iowa and Wisconsin Departments of Transportation
id= NBI 000000000013520
design= Melvin B. Stone
mainspan=
length= 1,653 feet (504 m)
width= 21 feet (6 m), 2 Lanes
clearance=
below= 68 feet (21 m)
traffic= 2,357 (2003)
open= June 17, 1931
closed=
toll=
map_cue=
map_

map_text=
map_width=
coordinates= coord|43|21|55|N|91|12|54|W|region:US_type:landmarkThe Black Hawk Bridge spans the Mississippi River, joining the town of Lansing, in Allamakee County, Iowa, to rural Crawford County, Wisconsin. It is the northernmost Mississippi River bridge in Iowa.

Named for Chief Black Hawk, it is popularly referred to as the "Lansing bridge". It carries Iowa Highway 9 and Wisconsin Highway 82.

This riveted cantilever through truss bridge ( [http://bridgehunter.com/browse/type/truss/through/cantilevered/ other examples] ) has one of the more unusual designs of any Mississippi River bridge. Construction started in 1929 and was completed in 1931. The designer and chief engineer was Melvin B. Stone. The McClintic-Marshall Company of Chicago erected the trusses. The steel came from the Inland Steel Company.

The Wisconsin approach has a long causeway over Winneshiek bottoms (sloughs, ponds, and backwaters) before ramping up to the bridge itself. The main shipping channel is on the Iowa side. The Iowa approach is rather abrupt, going from a 25 mph city street straight up a steep ramp onto the bridge.

Originally a privately built and operated bridge owned by the Iowa-Wisconsin Bridge Company, it was closed between 1945 and 1957, due to damage from ice damming, and lacking funds to repair the bridge, the company went out of business. The two states acquired the bridge and repaired it.

The bridge has a sufficiency rating of 39.9%, which mainly reflects its obsolete nature. So far neither Wisconsin nor Iowa have seriously considered replacing the structure, because daily traffic counts do not support a new crossing. However, if the bridge was torn down or became unusable there would be a 63 mile gap between river crossings.

There is a commercially-sponsored [http://www.lansingiowa.com/black_hawk_bridge_cam.htm webcam] on the bridge, updated every 30 seconds during daylight. The 1999 movie "The Straight Story" has aerial footage of the Richard Farnsworth character driving a riding lawn mower across it.

See also

* List of crossings of the Upper Mississippi River

Sources and external links

* [http://www.ole.dot.state.ia.us/historicbridge/detail.asp?id=3 Iowa Department of Transportation] , Retrieved July 28, 2007
* [http://www.johnweeks.com/upper_mississippi/pagesA/umissA06.html Black Hawk Bridge] (Superb site, with pictures and statistics), Retrieved July 28, 2007
* [http://nationalbridges.com/nbi_record.php?StateCode=19&struct=000000000013520 NationalBridges.com] , Retrieved August 7, 2007
*, Retrieved July 28, 2007
* [http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=hhphoto&fileName=ia/ia0400/ia0419/photos/browse.db&action=browse&recNum=0&title2=Black%20Hawk%20Bridge,%20Spanning%20Mississippi%20River%20at%20State%20Highway%209,%20Lansing,%20Allamakee%20County,%20IA Library of Congress site with photographs]
* [http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/S?pp/hh:@field(TITLE+@od1(Black+Hawk+Bridge,+Spanning+Mississippi+River+at+State+Highway+9,+Lansing,+Allamakee+County,+IA)) Library of Congress summary] , Retrieved July 28, 2007

Crossings navbox
structure = Bridges
place = Mississippi River
bridge = Black Hawk Bridge
bridge signs =
upstream = Mississippi River Bridge
upstream signs = ----
La Crosse West Channel Bridge

downstream = Marquette-Joliet Bridge
downstream signs =