King Gone

Over thirty years ago, I went on a two year odyssey of hunting old turn-of-the-century bridges and collecting the maker's plate before they were removed and replaced with modern concrete bridges. Detailed highway maps of each county were used to locate the bridges.

The Zenas King descendants are trying to preserve the history of the King Bridge Company which made many the these bridges. They have contacted me about the bridge signs that I have in my collection. They also are interested in preserving some of the bridges, are actively working with historical societies etc. You may want to visit their website at http://www.KingBridgeCo.com

With my interest in King bridges tweaked, I dug out my old county maps to see the location of the King bridges that I had identified in my bridge hunting trips. They were in the following Illinois counties:

  • Fulton — 1 King out of 7 total with bridge signs
  • Ford — 1 King out of 12
  • Henderson — 1 King out of 1
  • Knox — 2 Kings out of 22
  • Logan — 1 King out of 29
  • McLean — 6 Kings out of 14
  • Peoria — 1 King out of 7
  • Stark — 1 King out of 11
  • Tazewell — 1 King out of 11
  • Warren — 6 Kings out of 16
  • Woodford — 2 Kings out of 13

    • There was a total of 22 King signs out of 143 identified over 30 years ago. I noticed that there were six in a relatively small area in McLean County, IL which is a hours drive from my home. The weather forecast was 60 degrees on the 9th of January so I grabbed my camera and headed out to see if there was any King bridges left. I fully expected to find none.

    I went to following numbered bridge locations and found the following:
    3 - 1889 King (broken) now a concrete bridge
    4 - Abandoned Bowstring Bridge with King Overhead sign missing now
    5 - King Overhead large curved sign now a concrete bridge
    6 - 1885 King Overhead now a concrete bridge
    7 - 1898 King square now a concrete bridge
    14 - Abandoned truss Bridge with three broken 1891 King square signs

    It gave me great satisfaction to be able to find two bridges even though they were abandoned and in poor shape. It may be the kind of the feeling a hunter has when he is able to find his target even though it is not a trophy specimen. Numbers 3-4-5-7 have been replaced by concrete bridges.

    Number 5 is a large bowstring bridge that has been abandoned for many years as attested by the tree growing around one of the struts.

The bridge crosses the Mackinaw River. The road to it blocked off and now looks more like a path than a road. There are so many trees around it that you would not be able to see it from the regular county road when the leaves are on.

 

 

My number 14 King bridge is also on a abandoned road. The farmers use the road on both sides of the bridge to get to their fields. It is a small truss bridge built in 1891 that crossed over a drainage ditch. Three of the maker’s plate are on the bridge but each one is broken.