Once located in the Village of Mapleton, this small through girder bridge crossed County Road P (Brown Street), approximately five miles north of Oconomowoc.
Built in 1911, the bridge originally featured a double track through girder span, approached by trestle on either side and set onto timber piles.
It is apparent from the design that this bridge was a standard design for this line. The girder was an unusual, shallow structure, with an odd floor system. Instead of solid beam joists (floor components running across the rails underneath the tracks), these components consist of doubled up plates, arranged in an unusual manner.
At some point, the northern track was removed. While the north track was officially removed in 1959, it appears that the bridge structure was not removed until the mid 1960s. The parallel track girder was removed by simply cutting the old girder off.
Unfortunately, this bridge was replaced in September 2020. Union Pacific has worked with Waukesha County to replace the bridge, particularly due to height concerns. The final train across the bridge was on the morning of September 5th, 2020.
Overall, the author has ranked the bridge as being locally significant, due to the common design. Despite this, the bridge does retain some unique historic features.
The photo above is an overview.