Milwaukee Road Des Moines River Bridge, Madrid IA

Just curious about this bridge, which is being dismantled to provide parts for the replacement for the Kate Shelley Bridge near Boone IA. The 9/07 Trains notes that this Milwaukee structure was built in the 1970s only to be abandoned in 1980. Anyone have a source for more details, maps, etc.?

I found a few photos online depicting the original bridge, which looked to be quite a massive structure, seems like a strange place to spend money only to dump the whole line a few years later with no other road picking up the line instead.

I think you'd get more responses if you put this in the midwest forum.

I visited what's left of the bridge last spring - April of '07. There were only the concrete abutments left then. That's really all I know about it. I believe a group attempted to buy part of the branch from the CNW or UP not too many years ago to run as a shortline, but I think the plan to use the bridge on Kate Shelley's replacement put the price too high.

The bridge was built in 1973 by the federal government on account of the Saylorsville Dam project. The original double track trestle built in 1913 (and down to one track by 1934) was a steel structure that was not designed to have the footings of the steel towers submerged under water. So a replacement single track bridge with high concrete piers capable of submersion was built right beside it. This line segment of the MILW was eventually picked up by the CNW when the MILW quit, and UP inherited the bridge with the CNW merger.