Sutliff Bridge

The Sutliff Bridge is a bridge over the Cedar River at Sutliff, a Johnson County community near Lisbon,[2] Iowa, United States. A Parker truss bridge, it was built in 1897 and 1898 at a cost of approximately $12,000.[3] J. R. Sheely was the engineer for the original Sutliff Bridge. After a modern replacement was built over the Cedar in 1983, the bridge was slated for destruction, but it was ultimately saved,[4] and on May 15, 1998, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.[1] Although the bridge remained a celebrated location for locals and for visitors from across Iowa,[4] including a 5k foot race beloved as the “worst road race in America",[5] it succumbed to massive floods in the second week of June 2008: while the river normally flowed many feet below the bottom of the bridge,[3] the floods topped the bridge's deck, and one of the bridge's spans was washed away on June 13[6] as the surrounding countryside was inundated with vast amounts of water.[7] It is estimated that restoring the bridge will cost $1.7 million. Most of this money would come from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), with the rest coming from donations and local governments; both FEMA and the Johnson County Board of Supervisors have agreed in principle to repair the bridge. The bridge reconstruction was supervised by VJ Engineering of Coralville, Iowa, and construction was completed by Iowa Bridge and Culvert of Washington, Iowa. In October 2012 a ribbon-cutting ceremony was held, opening the bridge to public use for the first time in four years.[8]

  • Sutliff Bridge before its collapse
  • Sutliff Bridge truss badly damaged in 2008 flood, downstream from bridge
Sutliff Bridge
Sutliff Bridge after 2008 flooding
LocationSutliff Road over Cedar River
Nearest citySutliff, Iowa
Coordinates41°50′23″N 91°23′33″W
Built1897
ArchitectG. W. Wynn; Jones & Laughlin Company
MPSHighway Bridges of Iowa MPS
NRHP reference No.98000520[1]
Added to NRHPMay 15, 1998

See also

References
  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
  2. Iowa Atlas and Gazetteer. Yarmouth, Maine: DeLorme Map. 2008. p. 44.
  3. "History of the Sutliff Bridge". Sutliff community website. 2008. Retrieved 2008-10-31.
  4. "Far from ordinary, but not a bridge too far". The Daily Iowan. 2004-07-09. Retrieved 2008-10-31.
  5. Hennigan, George (10 August 2009). "Deciding whether to rebuild historical Sutliff Bridge". Cedar Rapids Gazette. Retrieved 2009-08-10.
  6. "Floodwaters sweep away historic Sutliff Bridge". The Des Moines Register. 2008-06-14. Retrieved 2008-10-31.
  7. "Cedar tops historic Sutliff Bridge". Cedar Rapids Gazette. 2008-06-13. Retrieved 2008-10-31.
  8. "Supervisors vote to restore Sutliff Bridge". Cedar Rapids Gazette. 2010-04-07.
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