Brian, Glad you found the photos. The Galena River swingspan is long, long
gone. If you look on page 79 of Michael Spoor's "Chicago, Burlington & Quincy"
volume two book, you will see some rusted steel braces attached to the top of
the swingspan. My understanding is that patch/repair job was a result of a
mishap in the middle 60's. Don't know what hit it, a high-wide or loose load
or what..... The photo is from 1969 and I don't see the cabin, so I don't know
when that was removed. My understanding is that the swingspan was replaced in
the 70's.
What is there now is a single track girder bridge. No need to swing a bridge
as there is no traffic upriver toward Galena. I was up there roughly 5 years
ago and my recollection is that I stood on the bridge and looked down and saw a
round pier, which obviously was from the former swingspan. I always found it
intersting that the current single span bridge was never upgraded/replaced
to/with two tracks since there is double track approaching from the south(east
by RR standards) and Portage with it's double track is only a short distance to
the north(west by RR standards). I was once told that traffic didn't warrant
it, but it would seem to be quite a bottleneck.
The twin bridges are the ones which cross the Sinsinawa River. Those are of
I.C. vintage. There is a road called "Red Gates Road", which is across from
McDonalds in Galena. If you take that road and follow it 2 or 3 miles toward
the river you will eventually come to the Burlington double track. The bridges
are about 3 quarters of a mile by rail from there toward Dubuque. I was going
to hike that a number of years ago but a bridge inspector literally popped out
from under a bridge close by and informed me that if he ever caught me on the
property again he would have me arrested. That sufficiently scared me to not
trying that again.
Google "Earth" shows the area in high resolution. You might try looking at
that program to see the area from up high. It is interesting to follow the
lines all the way from Savanna to East Dubuque.
There are surely those on this forum who know much more than I do about Portage
and Galena Jct. Perhaps someone might have more specific knowledge to share???
Bob Krueger
>
> Since you live near Portage, are you up for a couple more questions?
>
> 1) The "Twins North of Portage" photo, those are the spans over the Sinsinawa
> River?
>
> 2) I have not yet found contemporary photos of the Galena River bridge. Is it
> the same today as then in the 1930s, including abutments, swing span
> apparatus and round pier? If so, I assume the wood operator's cabin is long
> gone.
>
> Bob, thank you again,
>
> Brian Chapman
> Evansdale, Iowa
>
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