US-66 and Pipeline Bridges over Colorado River at Topock, AZ

1916 Pipeline/US-66: (Archived Bridge Hunter; Bridge Hunter; no Historic Bridges; Satellite)

1890,1947 US-66/Santa Fe: (Archived Bridge Hunter; Bridge Hunter; no Historic Bridges; Satellite, US-66 and this bridge were replaced by I-40.)

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

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

US-66 Overview

1916 Pipeline/US-66 Bridge

This bridge still exists because it now carries a pipeline. You can see the pipeline come out of the hill on the far side.

Photo by Craig Philpott via BridgeHunter_1916

Postcard via BridgeHunter_1916

Postcard via BridgeHunter_1916

Route 66 Postcards posted two photos with the comment:

Here are two photos of the National Old Trails Road Bridge, the steel through‑arch span built specifically for the National Old Trails Road to cross the Colorado River between Topock, Arizona, and California. The first photo is the bridge under construction in 1915 and second of it completed. The bridge still spans the river but now carries pipelines instead of cars and trucks. It served as the Route 66 river crossing from 1926 to 1947. And it appears the film adaptation of The Grapes of Wrath with Henry Fonda.  The Kansas City Structural Steel Company built it in 1915 -'16 using a novel cantilever‑hoisting method: the two 180‑ton arch halves were assembled horizontally on the riverbanks and then swung upright using a ball‑and‑socket hinge. This avoided the need for falsework in the deep Colorado River channel. 

   The first photo is courtesy of Jim Hinckley.

   Posted by Wally Potter, Route 66 Postcards.

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Art Scheski commented on the above post
Here's a postcard showing its dedication.

Dave Anderson commented on the above post
We got this early morning view a couple of years ago while driving Route 66. Great time!!

Facebook Reel

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1890,1947 US-66/Santa Fe

"Originally built for ATSF railroad use. In 1947, ATSF built a new bridge for trains, this bridge was converted for highway use, and US Route 66 was rerouted from the Old Trails Arch Bridge to this bridge. In 1966, both US 66 and this bridge were replaced by Interstate 40. The bridge was not dismantled until 1978." [ArchievedBridgeHunter_1890]

Back from its railroad days.

safe_image for  Seaver Center Collection Image Display

BridgeHunter_1890

Postcard via BridgeHunter_1890

Bridge Hunter calls the design a through cantilevered bridge. I wondered about that because the above images have a center pier. But note that there is no center pier in this image.

BridgeHunter_1890

This is the only other image of the bridge that I saw that did not have the middle pier. So I guess the center pier was added after it was built. Was that part of the 1947 conversion to a highway bridge?

Postcard via BridgeHunter_1890

Pipeline Bridge with Triangular Towers

Note the "arms" that stick out from the base of the towers. They hold additional cables for lateral support.

Street View, Feb 2024

Pipeline Bridge with Rectangular Towers

This bridge hangs the pipeline from two cables that curve inward to provide the lateral stability.

Street View, Feb 2024

US-66 Route

I was surprised that US-66 crossed the Colorado River so farth south of Kingman, AZ, and Needles, CA. So I got these topo maps to study the route between those two cities. But they gave me another surprise.  The bottom map (Needles Quadrant) shows US-66 going North from Topock and then east through the Black Mountains to Kingman. The top map (Kingman Quadrant) shows US-66 going South from Kingman along the Santa Fe, but then it stops when it reaches the Needles Quadrant! I've never seen a road discontinuity like that before in the topo maps.

1954 Kingman and Needles Quads @ 250,000

A US-66 map shows that the Kingman Quadrant is wrong and that US-66 did go through the Black Mountains. I-40 followed the Santa Fe route instead of the US-66 route between Kingman and Topock.

route-66 via Dennis DeBruler

BNSF/Santa Fe Trestle over Tierra Blanca Creek near Canyon, TX

(no Bridge Hunter; no Historic Bridges; Satellite)

Facebook Reel

Marvin Parker: massive railroad trestle bridge in Canyon, Texas (south of Amarillo) burned and collapsed on May 14, 2026, after a lightning strike ignited a series of wildfires in the Texas Panhandle. The BNSF Railway structure was completely destroyed, taking the line out of service while crews work to rebuild it.

It is not very tall, but it is rather long.

Street View, Jul 2024

1960/61 Canyon Quad @ 62,500

I started with the contour lines that were close together at the bottom of the above map. But that trestle is way too short. So I then looked at the contour lines next to the Tierra Blanca Creek. That is where I found the above street view.

Street View, Jul 2024

28 hour replacement of the Santa Fe Trestle over Denton Creek north of Justin, TX

(Satellite)

The trees hide over half of the 600' (183m) trestle.

Street View, Dec 2024

BNSF Railway 1:00 video (source) @ 0:00

In just 28 hours, BNSF crews safely demolished an 85-year-old wooden trestle bridge and built its 600-foot steel-and-concrete replacement north of Justin, Texas. More than 40 team members worked around the clock to ensure the new structure was ready for service. After months of planning, teamwork and engineering precision, everything came together in a tightly choreographed operation that showcased the pride of railroading.

See a lightning-fast timelapse video of 28 hours of work condensed to one minute at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfknlgO4-Pw.

[Some comments observed that they had already driven all of the steel piles through the old deck structure and had cut them to length.]

Here we can see a couple of the new steel-pile bents.

@ 0:10

The small precast concrete structures to the right of the excavators would be the pier caps. The other structures are half of a span.

@ 0:19

It looks like they used juice (hydraulic) cranes for the pier caps and lattice cranes for the spans.

@ 0:21

Here a half-span is being slewed into place.

0:23

The length of the bridge is needed to pass the Denton Creek when there are rains.

@ 0:36

That tamper has his target out, so he is probably close to a final pass.

@ 0:47

The apparatus hanging out of the rear of the truck is an arc welder. The are welding the joints between track sections. The sections are two rails with their ties that have been preassembled so that they can be pulled into place after the spans have been built.

@ 0:49

After the welding, they did more tamping. I wonder if they also used a dynamic stabilizer to allow track speed after they were done. And I wonder what the track speed was before and after the replacement. Tracks on stone ballast should support a lot higher speed limit.

@ 0:53

I guess they did not use a stabilizer because this Amtrak train is creeping over the bridge.

@ 0:53

About a third of the construction time was dumping ballast and doing tamper passes.

1:00 video @ 0:39
Timelapse of BNSF bridge replacement! 28 hours of work in 1 minute

There is a parallel route, so detours during the outage would have been rather easy.

BNSF via Dennis DeBruler

1905(Page Design!)+1933 3rd Street (Lefty O'Doul) Bridges over China Basin in San Francisco, CA

1905: (Archived Bridge Hunter; Bridge Hunter)

1933:  (Archived Bridge Hunter; Bridge Hunter; Historic Bridges; Satellite)

Boat View, Nov 2014

1905 Page Design Bridge

BridgeHunter_1905
"A bascule bridge is a Page type designed by John W Page he worked with Shnable and Strauss on Trunnion bascule bridges, few of the types were constructed."

The Page design was indeed rare. Because the Monon Bridge was illegally scrapped, the GM&O Bridge is the only one left in the USA.

BridgeHunter_1905 and Bridges Now and Then posted
Looking south at San Francisco's Third Street Bridge, September 17, 1921. (Horace Chaffee, photographer/SF Department of Public Works)
Bridges Now and Then posted again
San Francisco's Third Street Bridge, 1921. (Open SF History)

Jas E milner comme nted on BN&T's second post
SP crossed Mission Creek just east of 7th Street (as CalTrain still does. It terminated at 3rd Street and, except for some pier spurs, it didn't cross 3rd Street. It connected to the State Belt via King Street. The Santa Fe freight ferry from Richmond terminated at the mouth of Mission Creek on the south side of China Basin and had an extensive yard well past Mission Rock. The Western Pacific also had a ferry slip and large yard, again east of 3rd Street. Santa Fe would have operated that bridge in order to connect to the State Belt at King Street. See map.

1938 Straus Heel Trunnion Bridge

Street View, Mar 2025

lll

Bridges Now and Then posted
San Francisco's Third Street Bridge, May 6, 1933. (OpenSFHistory)

Kenneth Dotson commented on the above post
Working great for 92 years and counting. Not even affected by the '89 quake.

Kenneth Dotson commented on the above post

2018 Photo by Geoff Hubbs from AT&T Park via BridgeHunter_1933

HistoricBridges
"This particular example is unusual because it has a roadway that not only occupies the space between truss lines, but also has a roadway that is cantilevered out from the western truss line."

sfpublicworks

When I saw the Santa Fe sign, I checked out the railroad activity in this area. SP was on the northwest side, and Santa Fe was on the southeast side.

1950/50 San Francisco North @ 24,000

But when this bridge was built, it did accommodate steam locomotives. Note that the cantilevered road was added later.

 BridgeHunter_1933, Credit San Francisco History Center, SF Public Library
Bridge opening May 12, 1933

Maureen Price commented on a post
Lefty O'Doul 3rd Street Bridge SF

1876 SP+Santa Fe Tehachapi Loop and 1918 Tunnel #10

Loop: (Satellite)

#10: (Satellite)

TripAdvisor
Tehachapi Loop

I Love Trains posted

The Amazing Tehachapi Loop ⬇️ 🙌

https://trainfanatics.com/the-amazing-tehachapi-loop/

I Love Trains posted

Birdseye View Of The Tehachapi Loop ➰ 🙌 ⬇️

https://trainfanatics.com/birdseye-view-of-the-tehachapi.../

The grade is 2% and an average of 40 trains a day travel through the loop. "Trains of 4000 feet in length or longer pass under themselves as they go through the loop!"

TripAdvisor
Tunnel 10 at Tehachapi Loop - Picture of Tehachapi Loop

The portal has a build date of 1918. [zyxcreative]

I'm not surprised there was a stringlined derailment because a light freight car was placed before a heavy load. But what caught my eye is that a well car was able to flip over a locomotive. Some comments indicate that the locomotives were mid-train helpers. The S-curve didn't help.

Locomotive Trails posted

String lined train derailment Burlington Northern Santa Fe train in Tehachapi.

📸 Amy Miller 

1966/67 Keene Quad @ 24,000

This source taught me that Tunnel #10 was the one east of the loop. And the S-curve on the topo map is consistent with the above photos.

svchistory, c1878