View an article regarding the construction of this route.
Located in Mosby, this large concrete arch bridge carries a closed section of Main Street/122nd Street over the Fishing River.
Reportedly, the Kansas City, Clay County & St. Joseph Railway line had 108 Luten arches along the system. While many have been lost or have not been rediscovered, this arch is the the largest known arch structure along the former interurban system.
Construction began in 1911 on the three span Luten arch at this location, and was likely completed in 1912. The line officially opened for service in 1913. Sometime after 1945, the bridge was converted to road use, which it served for many years.
Currently, the bridge is closed to all traffic, and is monitored by cameras. Mosby has a severe flooding issue, and has become somewhat of a ghost town due to home buyouts related to the flooding. A former Milwaukee Road bridge crossed the Fishing River just to the north, although that was removed in the early 1930s.
Robert P. Woods was the consulting engineer on this bridge, as well as the rest of the Luten arches. The Luten design was patented by Daniel B. Luten of Indianapolis, who designed a concrete arch that strategically used reinforcement to address tensile loads on the structures. This allowed bridges to be lighter and therefor cheaper to construct.
Between Liberty and Excelsior Springs, there are at least seven remaining Luten arches, and likely more. While some are in good condition, most are in poor condition, especially this structure.
During an inspection of this structure, it is clear that the west arch has begun to fail. In addition, other deterioration can be seen throughout the bridge.
The author has ranked this bridge as being regionally significant, as it is an excellent example of an interurban bridge that was reused.
The photo above is an overview.