What is this bridge for, exactly? Here it is, from both sides:

http://personal.morris.umn.edu/~webb...ndeBridge1.jpg
http://personal.morris.umn.edu/~webb...ndeBridge2.jpg

Some info:
1. It's old (obviously). Boards (for walking across) seem too rotted
to hold much weight.
2. I don't think it's wide enough for a tractor to drive across, but
it's obviously not just for human foot traffic, right?
3. The ditch of water beneath it is maybe 10-15 feet wide. I think
it's a man-made tributary from the Chippewa River. It seems to run
neatly along the boundaries of farm quarter sections in the area. The
bridge seems to connect two farms across the water.

Was the water used for irrigation, do you think? What role did the
bridge play? Thanks if you can help (or direct me to another source).

"MNRebecca" wrote in message
...
What is this bridge for, exactly? Here it is, from both
sides:

http://personal.morris.umn.edu/~webb...ndeBridge1.jpg
http://personal.morris.umn.edu/~webb...ndeBridge2.jpg

Some info:
1. It's old (obviously). Boards (for walking across)
seem too rotted
to hold much weight.
2. I don't think it's wide enough for a tractor to drive
across, but
it's obviously not just for human foot traffic, right?
3. The ditch of water beneath it is maybe 10-15 feet
wide. I think
it's a man-made tributary from the Chippewa River. It
seems to run
neatly along the boundaries of farm quarter sections in
the area. The
bridge seems to connect two farms across the water.

Was the water used for irrigation, do you think? What
role did the
bridge play? Thanks if you can help (or direct me to
another source)

Looks like a pulley bridge where only one side is opened up
(by pulling
one side up into the air) to let traffic (boats) through.

There's probably a hundred and one things that the water was
used
for but since it was made to open, the water was definitely
a pathway
to bigger waters. Most likely dug wider and deeper by man
to help
accumudate irragation for the two farms.

Donna
in WA who is just guessing.....

On 05/25/2010 04:21 PM, MNRebecca wrote:
What is this bridge for, exactly? Here it is, from both sides:

http://personal.morris.umn.edu/~webb...ndeBridge1.jpg
http://personal.morris.umn.edu/~webb...ndeBridge2.jpg

Some info:
1. It's old (obviously). Boards (for walking across) seem too rotted
to hold much weight.
2. I don't think it's wide enough for a tractor to drive across, but
it's obviously not just for human foot traffic, right?
3. The ditch of water beneath it is maybe 10-15 feet wide. I think
it's a man-made tributary from the Chippewa River. It seems to run
neatly along the boundaries of farm quarter sections in the area. The
bridge seems to connect two farms across the water.

Was the water used for irrigation, do you think? What role did the
bridge play? Thanks if you can help (or direct me to another source).
It's an interesting structure.
Would it be possible to get more pictures, possibly directly
down the bridge, from end to end?

On Tue, 25 May 2010 14:21:04 -0700, MNRebecca wrote:

What is this bridge for, exactly? Here it is, from both sides:

http://personal.morris.umn.edu/~webb...ndeBridge1.jpg
http://personal.morris.umn.edu/~webb...ndeBridge2.jpg

Some info:
1. It's old (obviously). Boards (for walking across) seem too rotted
to hold much weight.
2. I don't think it's wide enough for a tractor to drive across, but
it's obviously not just for human foot traffic, right? 3. The ditch of
water beneath it is maybe 10-15 feet wide. I think it's a man-made
tributary from the Chippewa River. It seems to run neatly along the
boundaries of farm quarter sections in the area. The bridge seems to
connect two farms across the water.

Was the water used for irrigation, do you think? What role did the
bridge play? Thanks if you can help (or direct me to another source).

Pipeline bridge?

MNRebecca wrote:

What is this bridge for, exactly? Here it is, from both sides:

http://personal.morris.umn.edu/~webb...ndeBridge1.jpg
http://personal.morris.umn.edu/~webb...ndeBridge2.jpg

Some info:
1. It's old (obviously). Boards (for walking across) seem too rotted
to hold much weight.
2. I don't think it's wide enough for a tractor to drive across, but
it's obviously not just for human foot traffic, right?
3. The ditch of water beneath it is maybe 10-15 feet wide. I think
it's a man-made tributary from the Chippewa River. It seems to run
neatly along the boundaries of farm quarter sections in the area. The
bridge seems to connect two farms across the water.

Was the water used for irrigation, do you think? What role did the
bridge play? Thanks if you can help (or direct me to another source).

That looks like a canal for transporting small barges... often they
would be spanned by variously configured Bascule bridges... used for
foot, cart, and livestock traffic. The one you depicted is probably
no longer used.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bascule_bridge

It looks more to me like that is a bridge used to support a big pump for
some kind of irrigation. Note the pump in the middle with the overhead to
rise the pump.


--
Bob Noble
http://www.sonic.net/bnoble

"MNRebecca" wrote in message
...
What is this bridge for, exactly? Here it is, from both sides:

http://personal.morris.umn.edu/~webb...ndeBridge1.jpg
http://personal.morris.umn.edu/~webb...ndeBridge2.jpg

Some info:
1. It's old (obviously). Boards (for walking across) seem too rotted
to hold much weight.
2. I don't think it's wide enough for a tractor to drive across, but
it's obviously not just for human foot traffic, right?
3. The ditch of water beneath it is maybe 10-15 feet wide. I think
it's a man-made tributary from the Chippewa River. It seems to run
neatly along the boundaries of farm quarter sections in the area. The
bridge seems to connect two farms across the water.

Was the water used for irrigation, do you think? What role did the
bridge play? Thanks if you can help (or direct me to another source).

"Bob Noble" wrote in message
...
It looks more to me like that is a bridge used to support a big pump for
some kind of irrigation. Note the pump in the middle with the overhead to
rise the pump.


I suspect that the "bridge" served to hold a "hydralic ram" which uses the
velocity of the water to pump a small portion of the water to the level of
the surrounding fields.

OR, it could just be a structure to hold a water turbine is the center of
the stream.

The structure in the middle tooks like something used to pull something
normall in the stream bed to the level of the bridge floor for maintenance.

Bob Noble wrote:
It looks more to me like that is a bridge used to support a big pump
for some kind of irrigation. Note the pump in the middle with the
overhead to rise the pump.


Belt driven powered by an electric motor. Maybe the overhead part
is used to pull the pump up to clean the debris that accumulates.

In article b1f92882-ad39-45aa-b926-aa43bc5320c4
@z17g2000vbd.googlegroups.com, says...

What is this bridge for, exactly? Here it is, from both sides:

http://personal.morris.umn.edu/~webb...ndeBridge1.jpg
http://personal.morris.umn.edu/~webb...ndeBridge2.jpg

Some info:
1. It's old (obviously). Boards (for walking across) seem too rotted
to hold much weight.
2. I don't think it's wide enough for a tractor to drive across, but
it's obviously not just for human foot traffic, right?
3. The ditch of water beneath it is maybe 10-15 feet wide. I think
it's a man-made tributary from the Chippewa River. It seems to run
neatly along the boundaries of farm quarter sections in the area. The
bridge seems to connect two farms across the water.

Was the water used for irrigation, do you think? What role did the
bridge play? Thanks if you can help (or direct me to another source).

It looks to me like the bridge was built to do exactly what it is
doing,which is to hold a turbine pump. It's plenty stout, so maybe it
originally held an engine to run the turbine, which has been replaced
with an electric motor. The rack in the center is to pull the pump
during the winter to avoid freeze or flood damage. The canal is an
irrigation canal. Follow it toward the river and you will find a
headgate and probably a small diversion dam to channel water into the
canal.

Thanks for all the input, everybody. I've sent an inquiry to the
local historical society. I'd love to know when this was built. WPA
project? Did they have this technology when my family owned the farm
(1903ish to 1925ish)? I'll be in the area again for Memorial Day
Weekend to decorate the graves of family members and will try to take
more pictures then. Didn't get a single one straight across the
traveling path of the bridge!

R.

On Wed, 26 May 2010 07:02:43 -0700 (PDT), MNRebecca
wrote:

Thanks for all the input, everybody. I've sent an inquiry to the
local historical society.

Is there still a Grange or some old agricultural society in the area?
I'll be in the area again for Memorial Day
Weekend to decorate the graves of family members and will try to take
more pictures then. Didn't get a single one straight across the
traveling path of the bridge!

Take some prints to the local gin-mill & diner and ask the old timer
sitting at the bar/counter.

Jim

On Wed, 26 May 2010 07:02:43 -0700, MNRebecca wrote:

Thanks for all the input, everybody. I've sent an inquiry to the local
historical society. I'd love to know when this was built. WPA project?
Did they have this technology when my family owned the farm (1903ish to
1925ish)? I'll be in the area again for Memorial Day Weekend to
decorate the graves of family members and will try to take more pictures
then. Didn't get a single one straight across the traveling path of the
bridge!

R.

Courtesy of Google, it looks like what's referred to as a pony truss
bridge. In the early 1900s, they were the cheapest bridge design for
short spans and a number of companies made them. By the time the
depression and WWII were over, highway departments had moved on to newer
designs (than steel truss). Example of one still in use:

http://bridgehunter.com/in/gibson/2600283/

Consider the possibility that "your" bridge was repurposed from its
original use/location. As those bridges were phased out, some were
probably free for the taking.

But the best way to solve the mystery is to inquire locally this weekend.

On May 26, 12:31*pm, Ann wrote:

Courtesy of Google, it looks like what's referred to as a pony truss
bridge. In the early 1900s, they were the cheapest bridge design for
short spans and a number of companies made them. By the time the
depression and WWII were over, highway departments had moved on to newer
designs (than steel truss). *Example of one still in use:

http://bridgehunter.com/in/gibson/2600283/

Consider the possibility that "your" bridge was repurposed from its
original use/location. *As those bridges were phased out, some were
probably free for the taking. *

I am LOVING the idea that the reason my tough ol' great great grandma
had $5,000 to give each grandchild in the 1920s (money that
disappeared in 1929, of course) was because she looked out over the
tributary ditch one day and said, "You know, if I took one of those
bridges they're giving away and put it across the ditch, I could rig
up a pumping system to better irrigate my fields!" But would there
have been ditches WITHOUT such bridges in the first place? How did
you get the water out of the ditch and onto the field without the
bridge/pump system?

MNRebecca wrote:
But would there
have been ditches WITHOUT such bridges in the first place?

Quite likely. In most of the world where ditch irrigation is used no
pump is involved. Methods of getting water from the ditch to the field
generally require the ditch water level to be higher than the bottoms
of the furrows in the field. To get water across the ditch bank there
are siphon tubes, removable barriers as simple as a plank, etc.

Una

"Una" wrote in message ...
MNRebecca wrote:
But would there
have been ditches WITHOUT such bridges in the first place?

Quite likely. In most of the world where ditch irrigation is used no
pump is involved. Methods of getting water from the ditch to the field
generally require the ditch water level to be higher than the bottoms
of the furrows in the field. To get water across the ditch bank there
are siphon tubes, removable barriers as simple as a plank, etc.


or, if they used a pump initially at ground level, it would be less
efficient since it had to do a lot of "sucking". With the bridge in place,
they could easily put the pump in the water, driven by a shaft from the
motor on the bridge.

I concur that the bridge was probably reused from some other purpose.