Western Railroad Discussion > NWP "Dirty Harry" Bridge Partial Removal

The long disused Northwestern Pacific R.R. bridge over Corte Madera Creek in Larkspur, CA--made famous by the Clint Eastwood flick--will have another little chunk of it taken out in the coming year. A new 291' long, $9.4 million biking and pedestrian bridge will be built extending from the abandoned NWP grade on the north side of Sir Francis Drake Blvd. to existing paths and sidewalks on the south side near the Larkspur Ferry Terminal. A 180 degree turn in the new bridge will require about a 50' chunk of the old north approach trestle to the NWP bridge being removed. The video in the following Marin IJ article illustrates this well:
http://www.marinij.com/marinnews/ci_25581248/work-begin-pedestrian-overpass-over-sir-francis-drake

Much of the trestlework and bridge itself will be retained but the look on the north side will certainly be altered. One positive is that pedestrians and cyclists will have a much closer look at the NWP bridge. The bigger positive--from a public safety standpoint--is a grade separated crossing of Sir Francis Drake Blvd. that future SMART commuters can use to connect the proposed Larkspur station with the Ferry Terminal.

The 52' bascule span at m.p. 14.6 was built in 1924 replacing an earlier bridge. The north approach trestle(second photo) was 490' long but that includes the now removed section directly above Sir Francis Drake Blvd. The south approach trestle(third photo) is 1252' long. Even though the movable section was built with two tracks every map I've seen has the creek crossing as single track. Third rail electric suburban trains used the line until 1941 with freight surviving until about 1980(can anyone confirm the date?). All photos taken this morning 4/18.

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A bridge strike by a truck in 2003 resulted in the section over Sir Francis Drake Blvd. being removed so the upcoming work won't be the first partial dismantling of the bridge. Yes, there are still rails in the weeds on the north side of Sir Francis Drake Blvd. right before "the gap".
http://bridgehunter.com/ca/marin/corte-madera-rr/

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Great post shed. Thank you for posting the news and the excellent photos. I have not ventured onto the island to take pictures and must get around to it, assuming it's not posted. Here are some more photos of dirty harry's trestle. Of course, dirty's harry's part is long gone--in fact I believe it was gone even before they stopped using the trestle: there was a mid'70's revamp of the Sir Francis Drake stretch of trestle. So not gone but maybe replaced. I haven't read anywhere a definitive date of the last train over the trestle, would like to know when that happened.

This bridge is going to be a major boon for the bicyclists. They need to do some work on that boardwalk there. Because bicyclists apparently don't have to follow the rules of the road, and all pedestrians must get out of the way of bicyclists, it can get pretty hairy underneath the freeway there. At least you can hear the death riders come clackety-clacking down the boardwalk. That gives you 2 or 3 seconds to remove yourself from their rightful path. Har har. Just joking...55% of bikers do observe right of way of pedestrians and do drive somewhat courteously and carefully.

#1 illlustration of what the bridge will look like when finished

#2 panoramic shot of rowers going through the bridge

#3 shot from the norh approach to trestle, back 2012

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The grafitti artists have really done a number on the bridge. The signs used to be legible for opening and closing of bridge until recently. The local rowing club has done a terrible job policing its own charges, and they have free rein to announce their considerable accomplishments on the reginoal and national stage on any available piece of concrete or historic structure or asphalt. Apparently they think it's quaint, but to me it's a bit too much of the classic sociopathic teenager attitude...very similar to the bicycle mindset. Speed first, safety second, other people last...

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Why haven't they removed the rest of the bridge and lift span? Money problems? Talk about a blight on the environment...

#1 more rowing and trestle, from yesterday

#2 I think this is railroadbaron's shot of what he called the last train out of sausalito. It wasn't acutally the last train out of the sausalito although I suppose it was last passenger train out of sausalito. It was the penultimate train out of sausalito. The railway car is Sterling Hayden's study/writing office which was situated at the south end of the schoonmaker in the 60's, actually on the old mainline of the NWP before Marinship required the shifting of the mainline to the left, and which is being moved to Morgan Railway Car at the south portal to the Cal Park tunnel. It is a passenger train in a sense because Hayden's daughter and others were on the railway car.

#3 represents perhaps the epitome of the wet dream of rich elite white marin bicyclist types: a path across corte madera creek that allows them to not have to slow down for anyone, especially pedestrians, who should move out of their way always, especially when they (the pedestrians) are crossing streets in crosswalks (or else be run down by bicyclists), because the true dirty harrys of the world today are your bicyclists, who care for no rules, only the code of the road(bike), which is "only I matter", and dodge pedestrians at speed as if they were so many slalom poles in a Super G World Cup event...as if they were Dirty Harry shooting a notoriously inaccurate handgun at the bad guys in a crowded mall full of mothers and children.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/18/14 17:17 by sliderslider.

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Cumbresfan Wrote:
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> Why haven't they removed the rest of the bridge
> and lift span? Money problems? Talk about a blight
> on the environment...


I don't know...would like to figure out what the deal is. The golden transit people and now SMART the new owners may be keeping this bridge here so they can build a new one if they so desire. But I think at some point those creosote soaked piles need to be removed for good.

I remember my mother taking us all down there when they "Tested" the bridge's. Back then there was a draw bridge over Richardson bay, on 101. As you went north there was a stop light where you would go east to Tiburon or west to Mill Valley or straight to San Rafael.

Then at the Corte Madera creek there was a draw bridge and stop lights for the 101 traffic and a left turn to get to Ross, Kentfield, etc. And of course the double track NWP bridge. It had to be "ready" in order to go up. They had to pull up rails, etc. so it could raise. After the tests, they would lower it and put the rails back for another year.

Then they re-built all the freeway bridges (I think in the late 50s or early 60s) and they got rid of all those draw spans.

You can still see where the 3rd rail cover is on one of the pictures. All those ties were extra long, every 3rd tie, to hold the 3rd rail. (We had to run along the track at Redwood High, at PE.

Nudge

spnudge Wrote:

>
> You can still see where the 3rd rail cover is on
> one of the pictures. All those ties were extra
> long, every 3rd tie, to hold the 3rd rail. (We had
> to run along the track at Redwood High, at PE.
>
> Nudge

I read an article about that spn. It's pretty amazing. There were some bridges that were fixed spans but had to be openable by crane on command for emergencies. Here's both richardson bay bridges back in 1956 during the time of construction of old one. My great uncle bought some of the salvaged lumber for his landscaping at his house.

#1 Richardson Bay Bridge, Sausalito/Mill Valley, CA. NWP mainline runs along right side of picture.

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#1 when bicyclists see this bridge they see it being removed and replaced with a connection to the path that currently runs south of here on ROW all the way to Wornum Drive and Paradise Drive. They envision one day being able to ride from here all the way to Sausalito on the right of way, using the reopened Alto Tunnel between Corte Madera and Mill Valley. Of course: there should be no speed limit on the path because there needn't be one: dog walkers, pedestrians, the increasingly aged population of marin, mothers with children in strollers, will all keep their heads on a swivel and step into the tick-infested grasses, risking lyme disease, anytime a bicyclist, or two riding abreast, or twenty riding in a wolfpack like a u-boat fleet in the middle of a convoy, approaches at 25-30mph. Here is the bridge understructure taken from the boardwalk that runs along corte madera creek.

#2 this is an old telegraph pole. It's on the west side of tracks. On the other side of creek, the telephone poles are on the east side of track. What gives? Maybe this is an old utility pole, not RR related.

#2 North side of creek, west side of trestle. Approximately here will be the cut through the trestle for the bike speed ramp.

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The older part of the trestle (the part south of Sir Francis Drake Blvd) has numbers on each pile to record how deep it was driven. I don't know from what datum these depths are measured--probably the tops of the piles.

#1
#2 both show the nail numbers in piles
#3 this shows this prominent dip in the members that run along the trestle. I wonder what this is from. It appears in all the old photos frmo 70's of the trestle.

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What is ETS? This is on north side of creek, west side of trestle.

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Thanks for sharing the info and photos.

However the constant attacks on bicyclists wrecked it.

Al Seever
Phoenix, AZ

It is perhaps ironical that today's chief users (in their own minds) of the multi-use paths that have taken over so many ROWs across america have the mindest of locomotives: I speak of the bicyclists who run by pedestrians, children, babies, dogs, toy dogs, ducks, geese at 25-35 mph, rarely giving the pedestrian the courtesy of a three foot buffer, frequently passing them at only a foot or less distance. Of course in the case of a train, it has no choice of where it runs--it runs down the rails and pedestrians shouldn't be on the ROW at all, that's dangerous and trespassing. Yet how many bicyclists have you passed walking down the street seem to have this mindset that they themselves have their own self-chosen set of rails guiding them home on some imagined, appropriated right of way of their own, on which any pedestrian of any kind, any creature, is a trespasser worth no consideration or courtesy at all?

This dirty harry bridge tear down seems to have much symbolical weight for the future of ROWs...issues to consider....

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This is an article on the drawbridges of Marin from 1976.

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Okay, something I haven't seen in the SMART plans...

How are they planning to do the station for the Larkspur Terminal? I hope they won't be dropping people off across the street or too far from the ferries. If the walk is too much or too difficult, it will severely impact usage.

Z

They have an EIR out I'll try to find it.

Al Giddings, who was an engineer I believe for a couple of years for the electric interurban division, fantasized back in the 70's of running a loop around wood island and over to the ferry terminal. That would have been pretty good I think. He was a man thinking way ahead of his time. He knew that there was a golden opportunity but they missed it--they could have had rail service all the way to sausalito or tiburon if they had been under just a bit more pressure in the 60's. But it was not to be...

While many cyclists are scofflaws, and while I haven't done much cycling in Marin, the rank against them is pretty strong.

Please keep in mind motorists often wish cyclists had a safer place to ride. These paths provide that option.

The paths, primarily geared towards cycling (which is good), are not so good for pedestrians. If you think otherwise, then imagine pedestrians walking along the side of freeways.

Sidewalks are mostly for pedestrians. Bike paths are mostly for bikes. Freeways are mostly for cars.

And courtesy is needed, and required, for all.

Creosote soaked ties ! ! ! Everyone, quick- run for your lives.

coach Wrote:
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> Sidewalks are mostly for pedestrians. Bike paths
> are mostly for bikes. Freeways are mostly for
> cars.
>
> And courtesy is needed, and required, for all.


This is precisely the problem. These are actually multi-use paths, not dedicated bike paths. They are owned by the towns for walking, jogging, and biking--they are not owned by a transit agency and thus not dedicated primarily to transit solutions. But there is a class of bicyclist that treats them as such--or treats them as a private speed track.

This dirty harry bridge bridge will be an interesting area because it is the intersection of the southern terminus of the SMART pathway with the pedestrian/bike route from the Larkspur ferry for everyone wishing to head over Corte Madera Creek or up the multi-use (not bike path) into the Ross Valley. So there's going to be a great deal of traffic at this spot, doing 180 turns at the base of the bridge, as well as turning up it.

Let's remember: pedestrians and bikes ARE NOT POLICED. There is no enforcement of any kind on these paths. There is no rules. No law. It's pure jungle out there. That's why we need to advocate for transit solutions that accomodate not only bicyclists (and the car drivers that benefit from having them off the road) but for pedestrians too who use these multiuse paths for recreation/exercise as well as transit.