Long Ravine Trestle is a pair of deck plate girder railway bridges near Colfax, California.[1] They carry the Union Pacific Railroad Roseville Subdivision over Long Ravine and Interstate 80, traversing the Sierra Nevada. The original crossing was a three-span Howe truss bridge with wooden trestle approaches, constructed as part of the first transcontinental railroad.[2] The Nevada County Narrow Gauge Railroad was subsequently constructed under the bridge between 1875 and 1876.[3] The trestle portions of the bridge were replaced with embankments by this time.[4] The original wooden trestle was replaced with an iron structure in 1890.[5] Southern Pacific double tracked the line and constructed the two modern bridges, completed in 1912 and 1913,[6] to carry the rails. The southern span was retrofitted in the late 1958 to allow for the new U.S. Route 40 freeway to be routed underneath.[6] The bridge is predominantly used for freight trains, but is utilized by the daily Amtrak California Zephyr.
Long Ravine Trestle | |
|---|---|
 Long Ravine Trestle spans Interstate 80 in the Sierra Nevada | |
| Coordinates | 39°07′25″N 120°56′24″W / 39.1235°N 120.9401°W |
| Carries | Roseville Subdivision |
| Crosses | Long Ravine,  I-80 |
| Locale | Colfax, California |
| Owner | Union Pacific Railroad |
| Rail characteristics | |
| No. of tracks | 2 |
| Track gauge | 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge |
| History | |
| Constructed by | Southern Pacific Railroad |
| Rebuilt | 1890, 1912/1913 |
| Location | |
 | |
References
edit- ^ "UP - Long Ravine Trestle". BridgeHunter. Retrieved February 15, 2024.
- ^ Bianculli 2001, p. 65
- ^ Sommers & Staab 2018, p. 24
- ^ Sommers & Staab 2018, p. 24–25
- ^ Sommers & Staab 2018, p. 96
- ^ a b "California Log of Bridges on State Highways (District 3)" (PDF) (Report). California Department of Transportation. October 2018. p. 26. Retrieved February 16, 2024.
Bibliography
edit- Bianculli, Anthony J. (2001). Trains and Technology. University of Delaware Press. ISBN 9780874138030.
- Sommers, Arthur; Staab, Roger (2018). Railroads of Placer County. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 9781467127646.
External links
edit
Media related to Long Ravine trestle at Wikimedia Commons
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