The Rockport Railroad Bridge carries the Paducah & Louisville Railway across the Green River in Rockport, Kentucky.
The Rockport Railroad Bridge was completed across the Green River at Rockport in 1870 by the Elizabethtown & Paducah Railroad (E&P) which was completing its mainline between Elizabethtown and Paducah. The crossing featured two through trusses, one of which was a swing span to permit steamboats to travel unimpeded along the river.
Source: Rothert, Otto A., editor. “The Railroad Bonds.” A History of Muhlenberg County, John P. Morton & Company, Louisville, KY, 1913, p. 369.
The E&P’s ultimate successor, the Chesapeake, Ohio & Southwestern Railroad, was acquired by the Illinois Central Railroad in 1893.
With the need to run larger locomotives over its line and to improve navigational clearances along the river, the Illinois Central Railroad submitted plans for the reconstruction of the Rockport bridge in May 1930. 1 The proposals were approved and the superstructure was replaced in 1931 with a single-leaf Strauss heel-trunnion bascule drawbridge with a 400-foot main span by the Virginia Bridge Company. It opened to traffic on August 3, 1932. 2
Information
- State: Kentucky
- Route: Paducah & Louisville Railway
- Type: Through Truss Bascule, Warren Through Truss
- Status: Active - Railroad
- Main Span Length: 400 feet
Sources
- “War Department Approves Plans for Rockport Span.” Messenger-Inquirer [Owensboro], 18 May 1930, p. 10.
- “Good Rains Falls in Muhlenberg.” Messenger-Inquirer [Owensboro], 4 Aug. 1932, p. 11.