Hey Team,

I was wandering around the abandoned Chicago & Northwestern "Air Line" bridge just north of Milwaukee over the Milwaukee River a few years ago and snapped this picture. They will be turning it into a bike path this coming year, so I thought I would ask what type of spikes these are before they get ripped out and the deck paved over. I have never seen any before or since.

~Davidson

"hairpins" is a common name for those things. They are a spring design, and fit the plate/tie holes tightly. These look like a 1950s product of Bernuth, Lembke Co. of New York, which I suspect may have been an importer of European technology.

Howard P.