Shippingsport Bridge

Shippingsport Bridge
Coordinates	41°18′52″N 89°05′30″W
Carries	Two lanes of Illinois Route 351
Crosses	Illinois River
Locale	LaSalle, Illinois and Oglesby, Illinois
Official name	Harvey J. Shippingsport Bridge
Maintained by	Illinois Department of Transportation
ID number	000050023736203
Characteristics
Design	Steel girder concrete deck
Total length	1,775 feet
Width	2 traffic lanes, 39 feet (12 meters)
History
Construction end	1929
Opened	October 30, 2003

The Shippingsport Bridge is a bridge in LaSalle, Illinois.

History

The city of Shippingsport no longer exists, but it is remembered through the name of this modern bridge. As it turns out, the bridge is actually named for Harvey J. Shippingsport, a Civil War hero. After settling on the southern bank of the Illinois River in this area, he made his fortune supplying bait to the commercial fisherman who used to fish the Illinois River. This is the third bridge to cross the Illinois River in this location. The first bridge to be built in this location was built in 1872 and had a swing span. The second bridge, built in 1929, was a 1,679 foot long multi-span truss bridge with a lift span across the main navigation channel. That bridge deteriorated to the point where it was no longer safe to commute on. The Illinois Department of Transportation considered simply closing highway 351. The local people organized and convinced IDOT to rebuild the bridge. Due to navigation requirements, the new bridge had to be located in the same spot as the old bridge. The result is that the old bridge was removed before the new bridge could be built. This resulted in the river crossing being closed for 2 years from late 2001 to October 29, 2003. That was 1 year shorter than planned due to the bridge being built much faster than was expected.

The bridge was nearly destroyed on April 20th, 2004. A category F3 tornado swirled through the Illinois River, knocking over a power pole just 20 feet away. It somehow turned and missed the bridge, heading straight for the nearby community of Utica, Illinois. Nine people were killed when the floor of a tavern collapsed into the basement.

The Shippingsport Bridge historically carried traffic for U.S. Route 51, a major north-south highway between Wisconsin and New Orleans. A bypass was built around Peru and La Salle in 1958. The bypass took the designation of US-51, leaving the Shippingsport Bridge being Business-51. Interstate 39 was extended south to the Peru and La Salle area in 1987. I-39 featured the mile and a half long Abraham Lincoln Memorial Bridge just east of Shippingsport. I-39 ended when it merged into the US-51 bypass south of town. At that time, the old US-51 bypass was turned back to the state of Illinois and was given the designation IL-251. Business-51, which used the Shippingsport Bridge, was given the designation IL-351.

The new Shippingsport Bridge uses a newly developed high-performance steel. This allowed for thinner girders that could carry across a longer span. This resulted in the need for fewer piers, and gives the bridge a thin graceful profile.

External links

• Library of Congress photo catalog of Shippingsport Bridge