Haw River, NC Railroad Bridge

The North Carolina Railroad's Crossing of the Haw River

While not the most interesting bridge design-wise, the rail crossing of the Haw River is a pretty impressive structure, the way it towers over the river valley below. And while the above picture may give the impression that the descent down to the river banks is steep, this is fact is not the case. The main street in town, what was once US 70, gradually makes its way down the opposing hills, passing by an abandoned textile mill and a number of historic houses and brick buildings. The town shares a name with the river itself and its main textile mill was one of the earliest in Alamance County.

This is not the first bridge at this site; in the above picture you will notice a lone unused granite pier well beneath the middle span. The first bridge was a deck truss whose construction was paid for by the founder of the mill, Benjamin Trollinger. It was built in 1855 (Haw River Historical Association). The old bridge was about as high as the bottom of the current bridge. You can tell this because the old bridge's brick abutments have been added onto with reinforced concrete, with the more recent concrete section being above the height of the old truss. Apparently they were not able to do the same to the old granite pier, probably because its distance from the abutment was too far for a girder to span. Why they went through the effort of building two new piers and modifying the abutments when they could have simply constructed a newer deck truss in the same spot is beyond me.

I'm not sure exactly when this bridge was erected, but my guess is that it was built around the same time as the nearby overpass over NC 49, which is listed as being built in 1927. The girders of the two bridges seemed to be of the same vintage, with a similar amount of rust and discoloration of the concrete.

The girders on this bridge are comprised of pieces of steel riveted together, as opposed to a solid piece. There are riveted gusset plates on the underside, used to connect the "zigzagging" bracing to the girders.

Pictures

• Left: View from the top of the river bank, along the upstream side. Center: Upstream view, from below, showing the 1855 pier. Right: on the downstream side. The trees along the river banks made photographing this bridge somewhat difficult.

• Left: Close-up of the girders. Right: the eastern abutment, showing the crumbling pre-Civil War brick portion and the 20th century concrete addition.

• Left: the prominent bridge bearings. Right: a gusset plate connection on the underside.

• The NC 49 railroad overpass (the river bridge is to the right of the left photo. 49 turns right here).