Winona Rail Bridge

Winona Rail Bridge
Coordinates	44°03′24″N 91°38′19.8″W
Carries	Chicago and North Western Railroad
Crosses	Mississippi River
Locale	Winona, Minnesota, Buffalo, Buffalo County, Wisconsin
Maintained by	Chicago and North Western Transportation Company
Characteristics
Design	through-truss swing span
Total length	2,735 feet (834 m)
Longest span	356 feet (109 m)
History
Opened	1871
Closed	1977
Location

Valley of the Mississippi from Winona, circa 1898

The Winona Rail Bridge was a swing bridge that spanned the Mississippi River between Winona, Minnesota, and Winona Junction in Buffalo, Buffalo County, Wisconsin. It was built to link the Winona and St. Peter Railroad with the La Crosse, Trempealeau & Prescott Railroad. Both railroads became part of the Chicago and North Western Transportation Company (C&NW).^[1] Parts of the bridge are still visible. The swing span was removed, but the box girder portion of the bridge still extends from Latsch Island just downstream of the current Main Channel Bridge. Piers from the original 1871 bridge and the box girders are in the North Channel just downstream of the current North Channel Bridge.

History

See also: Winona and St. Peter Railroad

Temporary bridge

On December 29, 1870, the Mississippi River was bridged by the first Winona Rail Bridge, a temporary bridge built in 4 days that connected with the La Crosse, Trempealeau & Prescott Railroad.^[1][2] The La Crosse, Trempealeau & Prescott, another enterprise of the C&NW, chartered to build from a point across the river from Winona to connect with the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad at Winona Junction in Wisconsin near La Crosse.^[3] This connection allowed through railroad traffic from Chicago into Southern Minnesota, without having to ferry cars. It was the first train to cross the Mississippi above Dubuque, Iowa.

Swing bridge first day of operation incident

The permanent swing bridge was completed in May 1871. It partially collapsed when the bridge tender failed to secure the swing span on the first day of operation on May 26, 1871.^[4] The bridge was rebuilt and was reopened for traffic on January 16, 1872.^[4]

Milwaukee Road

The Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad would use this bridge to reach its track in Minnesota until the construction of the La Crosse Rail Bridge by 1876.^[5][6][7]

Replacements

The swing span was replaced in 1899. The entire bridge was reconstructed by C&NW in 1928, replacing the through-truss approach spans with plate girder spans.

Retirement

The bridge was no longer used by 1977 and the swing span was removed in 1980.^[8] The Winona Subdivision of the Union Pacific is reached by trackage rights over the La Crosse Rail Bridge.^[9]

See also

• List of bridges documented by the Historic American Engineering Record in Minnesota
• List of bridges documented by the Historic American Engineering Record in Wisconsin
• List of crossings of the Upper Mississippi River
• Winona Green Bay and Western Rail Bridge (historical)

References

1. Hubbard, Lucius F. (1908). Minnesota in Three Centuries: 1655-1908 1870. Publishing Society of Minnesota. pp. 359 – via Archive.org.
2. "Throwback Thursday: In 1870, Winona built a rail bridge over the Mississippi in just 4 days". Winona Daily News. March 12, 2020. Reprint of an article that originally appeared on November 11, 1936, in the Winona Republican-Herald, a predecessor of the Winona Daily News.
3. Pierce, Eben Douglas (1917). History of Trempealeau County, Wisconsin. Unigraphic. pp. 262 et seq.
4. Christenson, Jerome (January 26, 2016). "THURSDAY THROWBACK: Debacle at the swing bridge". Winona Daily News.
5. Curtiss-Wedge, Franklyn (1919). History of Houston County, Minnesota. H. C. Cooper, Jr.
6. Trnka, Curt (November 13, 2011). "Trained: For 140 years, Winona has lived on the rails". Winona Daily News.
7. Railroad Gazette. 4. New York: A. N. Kellogg. 1872. {{cite journal}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
8. Farrey, Karriann (September 29, 2018). "Lost Winona: Sites then and now". Winona Daily News.
9. Railfan & Railroad. Carstens Publications. 2001. {{cite journal}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)

External links

• Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) No. MN-8, "Winona Bridge, Spanning Mississippi River, Winona, Winona County, MN", 58 photos, 4 photo caption pages