Wooden Railroad Bridges

Always loved trestle and wooden railroad bridges.

Flatbed scanned from source by Hume-Bennett Lumber Company — Johnston, Hank (1966). They Felled the Redwoods (circa 1915): A Saga of Rails and Flumes in the High Sierra. Fish Camp, California: Stauffer Publishing. ISBN 0–87046–003-X., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=125979249

Flatbed scanned from source: Johnston, Hank (1966). Construction of a railroad trestle in present day Sequoia National Forest (circa 1915). Note typical bracing of trestle “bents”. This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1928.

Trestle bridge composed of
short spans supported by
closely spaced frames
spans between 12 and 16 feet,
Supporting frames
called “bents” that
often consist of
4–6 vertical
cross braced posts,
Trestles differ from viaducts,
Viaducts have towers that
support long spans and
higher elevations.

Timber trestles
fast to build
using local wood,
Helped speed railroad to
get running and earning,
Once operating
railroad transported
builders and material to
replace trestles with
permanent bridges,
At least that was intention,
Sometimes replacements
delayed or never happened
because of blown budgets and
poor financial conditions.