The goal of the line was to connect the Iowa State University campus to downtown Ames.
The railroad was replaced by buses in 1929 and the property was used sparingly to bring goods in to ISU.
06/16/22
The Dinkey Bridge is the crossing of Ioway (formerly Squaw) Creek on a former trolley line.
Built in 1940, the bridge seems to have had some connection to the Manhattan Project. Iowa State University was one of several locations working to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons.
In the later years of its life, it was used as a study place and art gallery by local students. Many inspirational messages were written on it.
Union Pacific offered to sell it to the city of Ames, but Ames turned it down multiple times due to the cost of repairing it (which was a fraction of the cost of tearing it down).
Despite local protest and angered college students, it was removed by Mike's Excavating in August 2010.
Today, it is just a big blank area where the nice bridge once existed. It is too bad Ames chose not to save it, as it could have made a nice connection from downtown Ames to campus.
The author has ranked the bridge as being locally significant, due to the design. However, the bridge was deeply rooted in the culture of the region at the time of demolition.