1915 Trail/Milwaukee Road Rosalia Bridges

#1: (Bridge Hunter broke Mar 22, 2023; Satellite)

#2: (Satellite)
 

#1:

Street View, Jun 2023

#2:    This spans the BNSF/Northern Pacific route.

Street View, Jun 2023

C Hanchey Flickr, License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC)
"Rosalia Railroad Bridge No. 1 (Whitman County, Washington)
"Historic Rosalia Railroad Bridge in Whitman County, Washington. The concrete open spandrel deck arch bridge was built by the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (Milwaukee Road - MILW) in 1915 to replace an earlier timber trestle. The viaduct is actually two spans, separated by an embankment. The west bridge (Rosalia Railroad Bridge 1) is 502 feet long and the east bridge (Rosalia Railroad Bridge 2) is a single 114 foot arch span.
"The bridges were listed the National Register of Historic Places in 1982 (NRHP No. 82004310 as the Rosalia Railroad Bridge)."

Jeff Kehoe posted
Well, the caboose is the "ghost" now, but the bridge is still there, now it's part of a hiking trail in Washington State. ---Ted Schnepf
Dennis DeBruler shared
Posted in the "Ghost of the Milwaukee Road" group.

In 1915, the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul Railroad completed a reinforced concrete arch viaduct 2.5 miles east of Rosalia. The viaduct replaced a temporary 2,177 foot frame trestle that was expeditiously erected in 1907 by the railroad, in an effort to complete its transcontinental line across the State of Washington rapidly. A contemporary article in the Railway Age Gazette observed that a concrete design was selected for the permanent structure because "the site was one where considerations of appearance had to be taken somewhat into account, as the structure would be seen from the two other railways and a county highway." Whatever the reasons for the design, the results of the engineers emphasis on the "considerations of appearance" was indeed impressive. 

[nps]

Photo by Conifers - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0

This must be the 1907 initial wooden trestle.

SpokaneHistorical
Efforts to convert the Milwaukee Road RoW to a trail started in 1999.

A lot of falsework was needed to build the arches. The tall tower near the center of the photo was used to place the concrete.

MilwuakeeRoadArchives, p3

The tower and a steam-driven concrete mixer were mounted on a traveler. The traveler could move back and forth on rails along the bridge.

MilwuakeeRoadArchives, p2