The bridge was last used in 1976, but it still has rails on it. Evidently wood does alright in a desert.
Bridge Hunter has street views taken by a hiker going across the bridge.
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| Jonathan Haeber Flickr via Bridge Hunter, License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) The tallest curved trestle in the U.S. dates to 1932, when an earthquake collapsed an adjoining tunnel. The trestle was the only other option for crossing Goat Canyon. The trestle stands 200 feet tall and 600 feet long. |
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| Eric Polk posted The Goat Canyon Trestle in eastern San Diego County is the world's largest wooden trestle. It was built in 1933 after a tunnel collapse led to a realignment of the San Diego and Arizona Eastern Railway. By the 1930s, metal and concrete were the preferred construction materials for railroad bridges. Wood was chosen for this bridge due to the extreme temperature fluctuations found in the Colorado Desert. The railroad no longer runs on this trestle and it can be visited by day hikers. |
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| Forgotten posted 16 mile hike to an abandoned Train track bridge in California, USA Carter Neusbaum: This is Goat Canyon Trestle, it is a wooden trestle in San Diego County, California. At a length of 597–750 feet (182–229 m), it is the world's largest all-wooden trestle. Goat Canyon Trestle was built in 1933 as part of the San Diego and Arizona Eastern Railway, after one of the many tunnels through the Carrizo Gorge collapsed. The railway had been called the "impossible railroad" upon its 1919 completion. It ran through Baja California and eastern San Diego County before ending in Imperial Valley. The trestle was made of wood, rather than metal, due to temperature fluctuations in the Carrizo Gorge. By 2008, railway traffic had stopped using the trestle. Warren Burkholder shared Sherry Bonneau posted Goat Canyon Trestle, aka the impossible railroad. They built this giant bridge after one of the tunnels collapsed. The railroad was suppose to connect Arizona to San Diego, built by a train car owner, the railroad never recouped its original investment but was operational as late as 2007. It has about 12 or more tunnels and a series of trestles all throughout a few miles of track. It's no longer in use, but I don't believe it's abandoned either. It's still maintained as a hiking trail.. It is plumbed with water pipes which doused the whole structure whenever steam locomotives crossed it...as otherwise it would catch fire and burn to the ground because steam locomotives threw alot of sparks. Credit: Steve P. Jolliffe Russell Courtenay shared |
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| Fernando Aragon commented on Sherry's post You should look into the trestle in Albuquerque. It's the largest all wood structure in the world. That's a bomber on top. They would turn the engines on and shoot EMPs at the plane. The wood was invisible to the EMP so it was a safe way simulate flight. [If someone he provided GPS coordinates, it would have gotten its own notes.] |
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| Ian Gove commented on Warren's share |
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| Photo taken by Mahat Tattva Dasa via Bridge Hunter, License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND) |
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| Trent Reeve posted Goat Canyon Trestle is a wooden trestle in San Diego County, California. At a length of 597–750 feet (182–229 m), it is the world's largest curved, all-wood trestle. Mark Harold Adams William Wilson Thanks for the heads-up |
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| Lydia Thompson posted The Goat Canyon Trestle, located in San Diego County, California, is the largest wooden railroad trestle in the world. Built in 1919 as part of the Carrizo Canyon Trail, it is more than 600 feet [182m] long and 186 feet [57m] high. The bridge was constructed of redwood beams, a testament to the engineering prowess of the time. Marc Chapuis: and a testament to redwood as a building material. Steve Mudge: Marc Chapuis old growth redwood like this was stronger but redwood now is pretty soft. I suspect they used redwood for the trestle because of durability to the elements--old growth was amazing at resisting insects/rot. |
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| John Kosiba commented on Lydia's post Actually built in the 30,s as it was a reroute for the original right of way that was severed by an earthquake that made a tunnel impassable. The bridge was built in 100 days and if you have ever been to this location you can appreciate what a task it must of been. In the photo I posted you can see a white line on the right beyond the bridge is part of the original right of way. My photo. You can see the damaged tunnel to the left of the bridge on original photo. |
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| Dave Arganbright commented on Lydia's post could be reopened again...obviously, it hasn't as of yet. [Dave provided 4 more photos from that day in more comments. (It is a public group.)] |
(new window) In southern Anza Borrego Desert rests the largest freestanding wooden trestle in the entire world: the Goat Canyon Trestle. Built in 1932, this engineering marvel requires a 16+ mile round trip hike across (as of this writing) abandoned railroad tracks, through train tunnels, and over smaller wooden railroad trestles. By the time you see the trestle, it's clear why this railroad was deemed "the impossible railroad."
[The YouTube AI offered at least eight more videos.]
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