"The Boylestown Bridge is a rare survivor of what once was a common truss type on the farm-to-market county road systems in the rural Midwest. According to an Iowa Department of Transportation bridge survey in progress, it is one of only three extant Camelback truss bridges in the state. The bridge serves as a significant reminder of an era when the counties in Iowa invested significant effort and expense in completing a transportation network to facilitate the shipment of agricultural products from the farm to the nearest distribution center. The proliferation of local bridge fabricating firms was a concurrent phenomenon, represented in this instance by the Fair-Williams Bridge Company of Ottumwa, Iowa. Such nineteenth century companies fabricated and erected inexpensive and serviceable bridges throughout the Midwest."The Boylestown Bridge consists of five steel spans, two 60-foot, four-panel Pratt pony trusses and three 150-foot ten-panel Camelback through trusses. All connections on the five spans are pinned and the deck is wooden. The trusses of both the Camelback and the Pratt spans are 17 feet."
The Boylestown Bridge was documented by Bennett, Muessig, Ryan & Associates, Ltd., (Iowa City, Iowa) for the Henry County, Iowa, Board of Supervisors in August 1984. The project team consisted of J. Ceronie and Marie A. Neubauer, photographers; and Barbara Beving Long and Hans Nuessig, historians.
--Jean P. Yearby, HAER, 1985
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