Rulo Rail Bridge from the Nebraska side. The road bridge is just to the south.

The Rulo Rail Bridge is a truss bridge across the Missouri River connecting Rulo, Nebraska, with Holt County, Missouri, and is used by the BNSF Railway to transport coal from Wyoming and Colorado to Midwest power plants.

The original bridge was built in 1887. It was fabricated in England and reassembled at Rulo. In the summer of 1977 the steel truss was replaced in 48 hours when sections of the new bridge were assembled on either side of the river, then lifted onto falsework towers on barges on both sides of the up and downstream sides. The new bridge was placed on the upstream towers and the old bridge was moved to the downstream side and then new bridge was placed on the original 1887 piers. The total cost of the operation was $6.7 million.

Prior to the replacement only grain rather than coal trains could cross the bridge.

See also

• List of bridges documented by the Historic American Engineering Record in Missouri
• List of bridges documented by the Historic American Engineering Record in Nebraska
• List of crossings of the Missouri River

References

• Lincoln Star (Lincoln, Nebraska), July 7, 1977, Page 5

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Rulo Rail Bridge.

• Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) No. NE-4, "Rulo Bridge, Spanning Missouri River, Rulo, Richardson County, NE", 11 photos, 2 photo caption pages

40°03′16″N 95°25′15″W / 40.054444°N 95.420833°W / 40.054444; -95.420833