BNSF/GN 1910 Tunnel and 1922 Bridge over Snohomish River in Everett, WA

Bridge: (Archived Bridge Hunter; no Historic Bridges; Satellite)

Tunnel: (Archived Bridge Hunter; Satellite: West Portal, East Portal)

C Hanchey Flickr, License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC)

BNSF Railway Snohomish River Bridge (Everett, Washington)

Historic Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway (BNSF) swing bridge over the Snohomish River in Everett, Washington. The bridge is a Warren through truss and was built in 1922 for the Great Northern Railway (GN).

Street View, Sep 2012

javacolleen Flickr, License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND)
Train Tunnel in Everett

Viral Media postedBNSF in Everett

Historically, the Great Northern, Northern Pacific and Milwaukee were in the area. Present day BNSF has modernized the rail network in Everett into a major junction point. The Snohomish River as flows into the Possession Sound, a part of the Puget Sound. The final few miles of the river in Everett form the Snohomish River estuary, a river delta that features wetlands and tideflats spread out across various islands and arms of the river. This is a major challenge for the railroad, and there are a series of turn bridges that enable maritime navigation and get the railroad across the delta. 

BNSF Railway Snohomish River Bridge

BNSF - Steamboat Slough Bridge

BNSF - Ebey Slough Bridge 

Everett is where the BNSF Scenic Subdivision (Seattle to Wenatchee) meets the Bellingham Sub that goes to Canada. A series of junctions allows not only mainline operations, but Amtrak and commuter rail in Everett as well.

BNSF Delta Yard runs along the Snohomish River north of Everett and serves area industries.

In 1966 Great Northern constructed a railroad spur to provide rail service to Boeing's Everett plant for the building of the 747. The terrain was rough and involved laying two miles of track up Japanese Gulch which rose 540 feet from the Great Northern tracks at Mukilteo, Washington, to the plant site up a steep grade.

The Port of Everett is an international seaport, and home to the Naval Station Everett.

Bridge Hunter lists NP, instead of GN, in the owners list of the tunnel. But this topo map implies it was owned by GN. Note that the route to the southeast was shared by Northern Pacific, Great Northern and Chicago, Milwaukee, St Paul & Pacific. (At this scale, if they were not sharing, there would be multiple track lines.)

1953/55 Everett Quad @ 24,000

Bridge Hunter and the topo map agree that GN owned the bridge.

1953/55 Everett and 1956/57 Marysville Quads @ 24,000