Wednesday, December 6, 2017

(UP+Amrak)/SP Benicia-Martinez 1930 Bridge over Carquinez Strait (Suisun Bay)

(Bridge Hunter, Historic BridgesSatellite)

California Highways and Public Works Magazine, page 15
[The 1962 (rehabilitated 1991) road bridge itself is notable because it is a long continuous truss bridge.]

While trying to get a Street View, I learned the old road bridge carries just south bound traffic and the new one carries northbound traffic for I-680
Street View

Street View

Marty Bernard posted
SP 3768 leading six more geeps and SP SW1500 2626 on the Suisun Bay bridge from the Benicia side in May 25, 1987. A Roger Puta photo.
Wesley Fox: A little short on power in Oakland?
Brian Jennison: Frequently they were short of six-axle power in Roseville, so geeps handled the Roseville to Oakland trains during those periods.
[Brian also explained that the SW1500 was going to Roseville for maintenance.]
Marty Bernard posted
Southern Pacific 3768 leading six more geeps and SP SW1500 2626 on the Suisun Bay Bridge from the Benicia, CA side in May 25, 1987. Roger Puta photo
James Belmont: With the yard goat placed behind the first locomotive, as per SP operating rules.
Marty Bernard shared
 
Bernard Wybrecht posted a comparable view with a 1991 Amtrak train.

UP
The caption cost me some time because this bridge is not In San Rafael, CA! It is between its namesake towns in a different county.
"Originally built for the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1929-1930, this is the last simple truss railroad bridge built in the United States at a new location (i.e. where none had existed before)."
Posted October 23, 2013, by jayhawk
Maybe the writer meant pin connected - 1930 would be getting a bit late for a pin connected bridge.
[Bridge Hunter]
Some big boats must use this straight to have a lift span with an elevation of 82 feet. I could not find the elevation for the old road bridge and I count not find a web page fore the new road bridge.

Marty Bernard posted
SP 8545 the Suisun Bay Bridge, between Martinez and Benicia in February 1985. A Roger Puta photograph.
Kenny Stone: Wow! How’d you get that shot?! A really long lens?
Parker Pringle: Marty Bernard posted about Roger Puta's technique a while back. I think he had a really long lens and would also have a body which a much wider one. Would grab a shot when the train was far away and then a couple as it passed. Marty Bernard was it a 600mm that he had?
Marty Bernard: He had a 500mm and for a while a 1000.
Tim Shanahan shared
Marty Bernard posted
Southern Pacific SD40T-2 8545 crossing the Suisun Bay Bridge, between Martinez and Benicia, CA in February 1985. Roger Puta photo
Mark Jones: Just went over it today, and will cross it one more time on my way back to Oakland. Note the signals protecting the lift span: back in the day you’d bring your train to a stop only 20 or so feet from the open deck during a lift! Now, the signals are landside on both sides of this venerable structure— a LOT has changed, but the bridge basically remains the same!
James Torgeson shared
This massive bridge crossing the Carquinez Strait (Suisun Bay) in California was built by the American Bridge Division of USS for the Southern Pacific Railroad. It opened in 1930 and is still in use by the Union Pacific Railroad. If Suisun Bay sounds familiar to you, it is home to the US Navy "Mothball Fleet!"
Marty Bernard shared
Bruce B. Reynolds: In 1985, the microwave antennas on the bridge were part of SPRINT: Southern Pacific's contribution to modern telecommunications.
Foamer Funnies posted
I know this isn't a meme, but it still is pretty cool. Pre, early, and modern Amtrak on the same bridge.~DDA40X
Paul Jevert shared
Martinez Bridge

American-Rails.com posted
A pair of handsome Southern Pacific PA's lead train #19, the southbound "Klamath" (Portland - San Francisco), over the big lift bridge spanning the Carquinez Strait near Martinez, California, circa 1955. Gordon Glattenberg photo. American-Rails.com
 
1 of 3 photos posted by Center for Railroad Photography & Art
Photo comment:
In a spectacular photo by John Illman, Southern Pacific no. 2485 leads train 223-248 west to the Bay Area over the Benicia-Martinez Bridge on September 23, 1950. (Illman 23-1-001). Today this bridge is surrounded by Interstate 680 spans.
Post comment:
The Center is excited to announce the acquisition of the John C. Illman Collection, which contains more than 6,000 black-and-white negatives and corresponding contact prints created between the 1940s and early 1990s. John Illman (1921-2013) was born in Seattle, and grew up in the Pacific Northwest. While fond of trains as a boy, he didn’t become a railfan until age 26; by that time, he was married and had taken a job with Shell Development in the San Francisco Bay Area. Illman began taking pictures in 1948, documenting the transition from steam to diesel locomotives; he especially loved to photograph trains in Northern California and the Bay Area, from Southern Pacific and Santa Fe to short lines and logging operations. He traveled extensively across the western United States and Canada, also spending a year in the Midwest and visiting places such as New York, Montreal, Atlantic City, and Phoenix for work. More than 500 of Illman’s photographs and several articles were published in railroad books and magazines; he was also the subject of a 2007 Classic Trains Magazine article by Dick Dorn (who acquired and donated the collection to the Center). In 2005, Illman was honored with the Hall of Fame Award at the annual Winterail photography show. Reference and Digital Projects Archivist Erin Rose has begun processing this collection and estimates she’s about 30% finished with her work. Three of his beautiful photos are shown here (click photos for captions). Thanks to Dick Dorn for his gift of the collection, and to our members for their support that makes this work possible! Join today at https://railphoto-art.org/




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