Wea Creek Bridge

Last crawled date: 4 years ago

Built in 1870, the bridge originally was three times longer than it is today, and was named the Bull Creek bridge because it was first located at the Osawatomie crossing of Bull Creek, south of Paola, Kansas. The Bull Creek bridge was built to replace a previous structure that had washed out in a flood in 1869. Referred to as a Bowstring Arch Truss, this type of bridge was first patented in 1840. It consists of two arches springing from and disposed between two abutments. Tension members hang from the arches and support the roadway below. Installed over Bull Creek in 1870, the bridge served that location until 1903. As was common during the period, whenever increasing loads required a new bridge, the older one was relocated to a site where a lighter bridge would suffice. This happened to the Bull Creek bridge in 1903. The three spans of the bridge were disconnected and moved to various locations in Miami County. One span was placed at Bryan Ford over Middle Creek, south of Beagle. Another was placed at David Ford over Middle Creek, east of Jingo. The final span, and the bridge that is part of the nature trail at the Kansas Museum of History in Topeka, was located at Whitaker Ford on Wea Creek, three miles west and two miles north of Louisburg. Today the bridge retains the name of its most recent location. Information from http://www.kshs.org/p/nature-trail-wea-creek-bridge/11888. #Bridge #Kansas_Historical_Society #Topeka