Big Four Bridge on Fire

Not a pretty sight over the Ohio River at the moment. The Big Four Bridge is currently on fire.

An electrical fire has broken out in the middle of the Big Four Bridge over the Ohio River, MetroSafe dispatchers said.

Waterfront Development Corp. officials and Louisville fire officials said they didn't know the extent of the fire, which broke out shortly after noon.

The railroad bridge is being turned into a pedestrian walkway connecting Louisville and Southern Indiana. The Big Four was completed in 1895 and abandoned in 1969, after which the approaches in Louisville and Jeffersonville were taken down.

Much of the site work around the bridge on the Kentucky shore is nearing completion, and $4.4 million worth of steel to be used in a spiraling ramp leading up to the bridge in Waterfront Park will soon be on order[...]

Louisville firefighters climbed an 80-foot aerial ladder at the southern end of the bridge to fight the fire, and some Jeffersonville firefighters got on the bridge to assist. Maneuvering on the bridge was dangerous because many of the bridge's timbers were rotten or missing.