Historic Preservation Commission
Camelback Bridge
Built
circa 1870, reconstructed 2000
Designated April 15, 1991
The bridge over the former Illinois Central Railroad line (now Constitution Trail) is, because of its humped configuration, locally called the Camelback. The bridge carried the east-west street Virigina Avenue (originally Sill Street) between Broadway and Linden Street. A bridge appears at this site on the plat of Normal printed in 1895 McLean County Atlas.
The bridge has a single, wooden span of thirty-one feet, with access ramps on either side that are supported by unusual riveted iron columns. The twelve iron columns that support the east and west approaches are Phoenix columns. This patented design, invented by Samuel Reeve of the Phoenix Iron Co. of Phoenixville, Pennsylvania in 1862, created a rigid, load bearing column using flanged arcs of cast or wrought iron riveted together at the joints. The Phoenix Iron Co. changed its name to the Phoenix Bridge Co. in 1874, and it is entirely possible that the columns under the Camelback date from the early 1870s. The Phoenix Iron Co. that made the columns for Normal’s bridge of the I.C.R.R., also made cannons for the Union Army during the Civil War. Therefore, the same company that manufactured guns for Abraham Lincoln’s war also made the materials for the bridge over “his” railroad, the Illinois Central.
Excerpts from The Legacy