Crosses Ohio River Longest span 216 m Bridge type Truss bridge Engineer Ralph Modjeski | Opened 1917 Location Metropolis Body of water Ohio River | |
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Carries Single track of Paducah & Illinois Railroad (jointly owned by Canadian National Railway, BNSF Railway and Paducah & Louisville Railway) Locale Metropolis, Illinois and McCracken County, Kentucky Maintained by Canadian National Railway (Operations) BNSF Railway (Maintenance) Design Simple truss bridge, with plate-girder approaches Total length 6,424 ft (1,958 m) (including approaches) Similar Henderson Bridge, Cincinnati Southern Bridge, Union Station, Stanford L&N Railroad, Sciotoville Bridge | ||
The Metropolis Bridge is a railroad bridge which spans the Ohio River at Metropolis, Illinois. Originally built for the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, construction began in 1914 under the direction of engineer Ralph Modjeski.
The bridge consists of the following: (from north to south)
Total length of the bridge is 6,424 feet (1,958 m). The largest span stretches 708 feet (216 m), and remains the longest pin-connected simple through truss span in the world. Cost of the bridge when built was $4,000,000. (USD)
Not long after completion in 1917, ownership of the bridge was passed on to the Paducah and Illinois Railroad, a newly formed railroad jointly owned by the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad and Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway. In 1925, the Illinois Central Railroad purchased a 1/3 share of the Paducah and Illinois Railroad, and assumed operations and maintenance, as the bridge served as an important link in their newly completed Edgewood-Fulton Cutoff route.
As of 2013, the bridge is still owned by the Paducah and Illinois Railroad, with operations managed by the Canadian National Railway and bridge maintenance/inspection managed by BNSF Railway, where it continues to see heavy use.