The Rock Island Bridge in Kansas City, Kansas is a rail crossing of the Kansas River. It connects the Armourdale, Kansas to West Bottoms. It is a truss bridge that is closed to traffic.
It was built in 1905. It has two main spans and a smaller one on the east side. It also has a screw-jack lifting system to allow the bridge to be lifted during floods. It was used until 1972, when the Kansas City Stockyards closed down, the Kemper Arena was built right in the path of the tracks, and Rock Island abandoned the line to the bridge later that year. The bridge's rails were cut off at each end and a levee for the Kansas River was built at the east end. It no longer carries railroads, but carries electrical wires in a rack. It is located just north of Kansas Avenue over the Kansas River.
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“What need the bridge much broader than the flood?”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)