Located along 6th Street, one of the larger railroad bridges in Ames makes a notable appearance crossing Ioway (formerly Squaw) Creek.
Built in 1898 and erected in 1900, it replaced a two span pony truss, which was likely reused elsewhere.
The present bridge has a trio of deck girder spans. These spans continue to be the original spans built between 1898 and 1900.
The deck girder spans which make up the present bridge rest on stone substructures. By 1900, many other railroads had moved towards using concrete instead of stone. However, the C&NW regularly used stone for several years more.
Today, the bridge is well known and easily seen from 6th Street. It sits near the Iowa State University Campus.
Historic photo of the bridge. Credit to PhotoLibrarian on Flickr, used with Creative Commons permission.
As Union Pacific continues to upgrade this route, more bridges have been replaced. The author believes this structure will likely be replaced within the next 20 years.
The author has also ranked this bridge as being locally significant, due to the common design.
The photo above is an overview. The bridge can be accessed from the parallel road.