Wednesday, August 16, 2017

BNSF/GN Bridge over Columbia River near Rock Island, WA

(Bridge Hunter, Historic BridgesSatellite)

Photo taken by Aaron Hockley, License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA)
From Flickr from Bridge Hunter

Harvey Henkelmann posted
BNSF crosses the mighty Columbia River at Rock Island, WA.
Bridge was built in 1892 for the Great Northern Railway, increased traffic and weight of trains necessitated reinforcing the main span with an outside truss in 1925 hence it's unique appearance.
Aaron Hockley photo

Chris Blankenship posted
The former Great Northern Railway
Bruce Grover: I was the track inspector for the area for 7 years. Beautiful area. All kinds of neat experiences. Including, boats loaded with people sunbathing! That was always eye opening! Funny thing, a couple of times I wouldn’t even have noticed except they were scrambling to cover up! Ha ha ha!
Christopher Clipper: Chris, there was a fire on that bridge back in August 1985. BN detoured their trains via Stampede Pass.

Andre Tardif shared

Steven J. Brown posted
Westbound Burlington Northern freight with stuff for Boeing crossing the Columbia River at Rock Island, Washington - June 23, 1991.
Steven J. Brown shared
 
Steven J. Brown posted
Southern Pacific 4449 and BNSF 4449 pull a BNSF Employee Appreciation Special across the Columbia River at Rock Island, Washington - July 17, 2000.

A 1925 construction photo showing how temporary trusses were used to anchor the two halves of the main span while each half was being constructed.

Jim Kleeman posted
In the early morning a partially dressed BNSF 4837 strides across the Columbia River at Rock Island, WA. The dispatcher referred to the Seattle - Chicago intermodal as the "Sea Chicken" when it left Wenatchee a few minutes earlier. Someone has a sense of humor early in the morning. 740 AM 9/13/1998
That appears to be a really massive pier in the middle of the river.
 
Motojw Photography posted
The Rock Island Railroad Bridge was built in 1892 for the Great Northern Railway. Bridging the Columbia River was an important component in completing Great Northern's transcontinental link the following year.
Jason Wiegand shared

Jon Bentz posted
BNSF C44-9W 5093on the point of an eastbound stack train crossing the Columbia River as Rock Island, WA. The bridge over the river is unusual in that it is a bridge within a bridge. The original 1898 structure is on the inside while a second truss built around the first is on the outside. Strengthened in the early 1920's to handle the increased loads of newer locomotives. 2012
George Werkema: Excellent photo, Jon . It looks like the north end of the bridge, with Malaga on the opposite side.
Larry Simon: I don’t see H1 painted ES44s much. The photo looks like a very well done model railroad. It’s perfect.
Allan Hackman: An interesting structure and an unusual cut (almost looks like a gravel esker running along the river). Does anyone know if they added piles at the time the bridge was strengthened or if they just welded the new beams onto the existing superstructure?

Marc Dufour shared a Flickr link. The Center for Railroad Photography has slapped a copyright on John F. Bjorklund's work. Bummer!

Scott Tanner commented on Marc's share
An early view .... (c1905 or so)
The above, cropped
Scott Tanner uploaded a six page Railway Review article about this page. In case the link is not permanent, it is stored as "Railway Review_May 1 1926" in the Files section of the RAILROAD BRIDGES, TRESTLES, TUNNELS AND CUTS group.

Motojw Photography posted
Rock Island Railroad Bridge
The bridge was originally built in 1892 for the Great Northern Railway and was the first bridge to span the Columbia River. The site was chosen at Rock Island, Washington for being the shortest distance between the banks of the Columbia River in Washington State. Description: https://en.wikipedia.org/…/Rock_Island_Railroad_Bridge_(Col…
Maggie Huggins Love this. You have once again captured water moving.

Jason Wiegand shared
Warren Caudle The story of the second bridge wrapping the first is interesting also.

Motojw Photography posted
Rock Island, WA

Jason Wiegand shared
John W Chamberlain: That is a most unusual bridge.....It is a railroad bridge built around another railroad bridge. The original bridge was getting old and could not be torn down and replaced so the railroad (GNRR) built a bridge around the first bridge. You can see the structure of both bridges if you look close. Also, see the island in the river? The BN and then the BNSF would like to use that island as a place to install footings for a new bridge to replace the one in the picture. It would streamline the track very nicely. The south bank of the river has an undulating and curvy and has very servier curves that require the train traffic to slow way down.
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