West Auburn Bridge

Information and Findings From Iowa's Historic Bridge Inventory

Discussion of Bridge

In June 1880 the Fayette County Board of Supervisors advertised for a contractor to build the stone substructure for a bridge over the Turkey River in Auburn Township. The structure was called the West Auburn Bridge to differentiate it from another township structure in the area. In September the county solicited proposals for the bridge's superstructure, awarding a contract to design, fabricate and erect the 165-foot all-iron span to Minneapolis engineer Horace E. Horton. Horton completed the West Auburn Bridge in 1881 for a total cost of $7,598.79. Since that time the structure has functioned in place, in essentially unaltered condition.

Configured as a pin-connected Whipple (or double-intersection Pratt) through truss, the West Auburn Bridge is one of only eight such structures known to exist in Iowa. First patented by Squire Whipple, bridge engineer and builder from New York, the Whipple truss was a popular choice for long-span crossings--generally in excess of 150 feet--between 1850 and 1890. The Whipple truss differed from the more common Pratt truss in that its diagonal members extended across, not one, but two panels. By the turn of the century, Parker and Camelback trusses (Pratt trusses with polygonal upper chords) had supplanted the Whipple as the truss of choice for long-span crossings. Accordingly, all of Iowa's Whipple trusses date from before the turn of the century. Two of them--the West Auburn Bridge and the non-extant Hansen's Ford Bridge in Allamakee County--were designed and built by Horace Horton in 1880. Based in Minneapolis in the 1880s, Horton was a brilliant civil engineer whose imaginative and often eccentric bridge designs were well known in the Midwest. Never overly prolific, he designed a number of Iowa's most distinctive structures during this period, a handful of which remain in use today. With its superstructure, substructure and setting all intact, the West Auburn Bridge is an outstanding early example of wagon truss construction in Iowa [adapted from Fraser 1992].

Bridge Considered Historic By Survey: Yes