The Morley Bridge, also known as the Romley Bridge, located near
Romlee in
Chaffee County, Colorado
Chaffee County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population was 19,476. The county seat is Salida.
History
Chaffee County has a confusing origin. Between February 8 and February 10, 1879, Carbonate ...
, is a wrought-iron pin-connected
Pratt truss bridge that was built in 1881. It was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places in 2003.
[
The bridge has a timber deck roadway and is long, with a span of on its Pratt trusses. It has a timber deck and stone masonry ]wing walls
A wing wall (also "wingwall" or "wing-wall") is a smaller wall attached or next to a larger wall or structure.
Bridges
In a bridge, the wing walls are adjacent to the abutments and act as retaining walls. They are generally constructed of the same ...
and abutments.[ It was designed and constructed by Denver, South Park and Pacific Railroad, and was fabricated by New Jersey Steel and Iron Company (a company based in Trenton, New Jersey).][ With ]
It was built as part of railway construction towards Alpine Pass in 1881 near what was then known as Morley ("also called Red Town because all the buildings were painted red, and later renamed Romley in 1897"). A tunnel at Alpine Pass was completed in 1882 and was then the highest elevation tunnel in North America. The first train from Nathrop, Colorado, to Gunnison, Colorado, went through in 1892. The railway served mines in the area until this section of railway was closed in 1926, and the bridge then was converted to a county road bridge. It carried vehicle traffic until 1992 when it was bypassed and was converted to a pedestrian bridge.[
According to History Colorado, the bridge is Colorado's "oldest dateable vehicular truss" and "one of Colorado's most important spans". It is "one of the few remaining truss bridges ]n Colorado
N, or n, is the fourteenth Letter (alphabet), letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the English alphabet, modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is English alphabet# ...
with both wrought and cast iron components, ... ndalso the only known pin-connected deck truss in the state.St. Elmo, Colorado
St. Elmo is a ghost town in Chaffee County, Colorado, United States. Founded in 1880, St. Elmo lies in the heart of the Sawatch Range, southwest of Buena Vista and sits at an elevation of . Nearly 2,000 people settled in this town when mining f ...
.[
]
See also
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References
External links
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Buildings and structures completed in 1881
Bridges on the National Register of Historic Places in Colorado
Historic American Engineering Record in Colorado
National Register of Historic Places in Chaffee County, Colorado
Pratt truss bridges
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