# Abandoned roads and bridges



## urbanlover (Feb 14, 2005)

In rural parts of the US you can abandoned bridges and roads,that came about over the years as new roads were built. They're often near their replacement so it's fascinating look at how roads change over time. Are there similar relics from the automobile age where you live?


The National Road near the Illinois-Indiana border it was one the first federal roads projects. Built in early 1800's from Maryland to Illinois, when the US Highway system was created in 1926 it became part of US 40. An aerial view gives so the history of highway development in the US, the current US 40 built in 30's, with it's replacement I-70 meant nearby 










http://maps.google.com/maps?q=terre...9.423763,-87.577858&spn=0.008122,0.02105&z=16






Former US 41 bridge Hazelton, Indiana












Old Silent Shade Bridge Montgomery, Mississippi

















One the more famous abandoned roads is 13 mile former part of the Pennsylvania Turnpike near Breezewood, PA. Opened in 1940, the PA Turnpike was the first freeway in the US, but the four lane road had the two lane tunnels by late the 50's that were congested. Some of the tunnels were twinned, but around Breezewood the decision was for bypass of two tunnels(Sideling Hill and Rays Hill) and a travel plaza opened to traffic in 1968.

The Sideling Hill Tunnel


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## Slagathor (Jul 29, 2007)

Excellent idea for a thread, I love the pictures you posted.

Unfortunately I don't think we have anything like this in our tiny and densely populated country. Unless you count old Roman roads but those aren't exactly "relics from the automobile age" as you so poetically described them.


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## Spookvlieger (Jul 10, 2009)

^^^We have some small parts never finished highways and abandoned bridges here in Belgium I guess, I'll find out 

Edit:
Bridge near Haseelt on the N702 Expressway between Hasselt-Genk. Build (1972) but never used.









http://wernermaes.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/tuikabelbrug_godsheide.jpg









http://members.home.nl/cr-corporation/images/velo/godsheide.jpg


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## Spookvlieger (Jul 10, 2009)

Near Strépy-Bracquegnies there is a bridge and road that was build but never used.









http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/91/ViaducInutile.jpg/797px-ViaducInutile.jpg









http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hpho...0153711118183_777683182_6688498_2260842_n.jpg









http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/221834_10150159758288183_777683182_6735853









http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hpho...0153711338183_777683182_6688500_7387513_n.jpg


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## Penn's Woods (Apr 8, 2010)

urbanlover said:


> In rural parts of the US you can abandoned bridges and roads,that came about over the years as new roads were built. They're often near their replacement so it's fascinating look at how roads change over time. Are there similar relics from the automobile age where you live?
> 
> The National Road near the Illinois-Indiana border it was one the first federal roads projects. Built in early 1800's from Maryland to Illinois, when the US Highway system was created in 1926 it became part of US 40. An aerial view gives so the history of highway development in the US, the current US 40 built in 30's, with it's replacement I-70 meant nearby
> 
> ...


Nice pics. I mean no disrespect to you (or the Turnpike, which I actually rather like) but I have to quibble with the idea that the Pennsylvania Turnpike's the first freeway in the U.S.; first long-distance, inter-city, whatever term you prefer, freeway, yes (at least that I can think of), but there was a lot going on in the New York area during the 30s and even the late 20s. Not up to current standards perhaps, but I'd consider them freeways/expressways* today.

30 years ago in my local library, I came across a fascinating book called "US 40," by someone named George Stewart, if memory serves. Published around 1950. He follows it from end to end and gives us a lot of the history you alluded to...pictures of old stagecoach stops in Ohio, spanking-new divided highways in Indiana, and the like....

There's an article in today's Newark Star-Ledger (I'm at my parents' and they get the paper) about what's apparently the last covered bridge in New Jersey still in use. I don't know exactly where it is, but judging from details in the article I must have passed very close to it yesterday. Are covered bridges a North American phenomenon?

Here's the article: http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/04/new_jerseys_only_covered_bridg.html


*Just to pre-empt any argument about this, I'm using the term "expressway" in the way Northeasterners use it - interchangeably (so to speak) with "freeway." And I still find it odd to call a toll road a "freeway," although the idea I got into my head decades ago about freeways being so called because they were toll-free is apparently mistaken.


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## Spookvlieger (Jul 10, 2009)

Ham, Bridges for a railway line and connection of the N74 to the E313, never used.









http://vandeurenlien.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/pict0067.jpg?w=450









http://vandeurenlien.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/brug.jpg?w=450









http://vandeurenlien.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/pict0114.jpg?w=450









http://vandeurenlien.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/lilii.jpg?w=450









http://vandeurenlien.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/pict0128.jpg?w=450


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## aswnl (Jun 6, 2004)

In NL there are not much abondoned highways, which heve not been completely teared down. This is one of them. Opened in 1967 to traffic, this roadway had already been abandoned in 1974. From that moment on it could survive because of the fact it could be used as an outdoor storage. Mostly everything not being in use is being removed in NL. Very old abandoned, rusty bridges: I don't know them...


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## mgk920 (Apr 21, 2007)

^^
Can you post links to Google aerial images of these?

Thanx!

:cheers1:

Mike


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## Jonesy55 (Jul 30, 2004)

There is a nice abandoned bridge a couple of miles from here, a stone one which was built over the river in 1774 as part of one of Britain's major coach highways of the time (and a major Roman road before that, Iter II). It was replaced in 1929 by another adjacent stone bridge as it was considered too weak for the motor traffic which was starting to become common then.

The old bridge still stands there, you can walk across it but its just grass and gravel where the road surface used to be.

I'll see if I can find a decent picture


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## Djurizmo (Jul 19, 2009)

Everything around Pripyat and Cernobyl is abandoned:

Small illustration:


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## bogdymol (Feb 4, 2010)

joshsam said:


> ^^^We have some small parts never finished highways and abandoned bridges here in Belgium I guess, I'll find out
> 
> Edit:
> Bridge near Haseelt on the N702 Expressway between Hasselt-Genk. Build (1972) but never used.
> ...


How could they build such a beautiful bridge and never use it? :bash:


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## Fargo Wolf (Oct 23, 2009)

Here's a section of the original Trans Canada Highway over the Savona/Six Mile Hill, west of Kamloops that I drove a while ago. The current alignment passes to the north around the bluffs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoGpZGyz8LY

Also a drive over the old Okanagan Lake bridge, which was removed after the W.R. Bennett Bridge opened to traffic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9dSYNKIRMw


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## AtD (Oct 22, 2002)

The viaduct section for Western Distributor in Sydney has a lower deck that was never used.

http://maps.google.com.au/maps?f=q&...id=8SbdbeSYW5eNaGEiPunrbw&cbp=12,148.65,,0,-3


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## brewerfan386 (Apr 24, 2009)

bogdymol said:


> How could they build such a beautiful bridge and never use it? :bash:


100% Agreed, what a waste of taxpayer money and resources. hno:


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## zaphod (Dec 8, 2005)

Yes, seems stupid. Why not make it into a local street?

Anyways, there are few examples of that in the US I can think of. Except for tiny stubs and unused interchange ramps designed to connect to something that was never built

But there is one in Baltimore, the failed I-70 segment known as the Franklin-Mulberry Expressway which is not technically abandoned yet but is so unused that its been closed indefinitely for a minor construction project since 2010. Here is an interesting article: http://www.baltimorebrew.com/2011/02/01/highway-to-nowhere-shut-down-and-baltimore-doesnt-notice/ Basically, its so useless that closing it hasn't caused any traffic or complaints from drivers.


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## 101rider (Jun 26, 2009)

Never finished expressway in Bangkok


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## urbanlover (Feb 14, 2005)

This part of Interstate 44 was abandoned outside of Tulsa. 

Aerial view
http://goo.gl/maps/f4y8













Another from the National Road an old Illinois state highway marker


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## g.spinoza (Jul 21, 2010)

A 3.3km section of old SS76 in central Italy, near my hometown, was replaced by a series of tunnels back in the '70s. The road passed through a gorge called Gola della Rossa (Gorge of the Red One):









And this is (what's left of) the road:

























In this picture you can see the Esino river which formed the gorge and the remains of the old medieval bridge, which still gives the name to the site (Ponte Chiaradovo - Egg white bridge) and was destroyed during WWII.


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## mgk920 (Apr 21, 2007)

zaphod said:


> Yes, seems stupid. Why not make it into a local street?


I did find this one on Google Maps:

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=50.939041,5.401046&spn=0.007856,0.021973&t=k&z=16

From the looks of it, it is in use as a local road.

Mike


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## bogdymol (Feb 4, 2010)

After viewing a motorway interchange recommended by another user on another thread I was looking around that point when I discovered *this*. Looks like a built but never completed end of I-22.


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