Nostalgia & History > UP and CMSTP&P once served Montesano, Washington

The Puget Sound and Grays Harbor railroad built to Montesano, Washington in 1889. Later purchased by the Northern Pacific as part of the Grays Harbor branch. Today it is operated by Puget Sound and Pacific. 

The Milwaukee and the Union Pacific also reached Montesano, but on the opposite side of the Chehalis River. In 1913 they built the short connection from South Montesano to Montesano and this drawbridge. 

They severed the connection in 1979 with demolition of the bridge and the junction. By 1987 Union Pacific had trackage rights over the parallel BN ex NP line and the rail pulled up on their side of the river. A short spur from the PS&P to the shuttered Mary River cedar mill is all that is left today and the blackberries and scotch broom have reclaimed all traces of the former railroad on the south side of the Chehalis River. I shot these photographs on July 5, 1972.

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In a discusion group about the area, somewhere on the www, they commented that there were few photos of the bridges in the area. This one looks like it was built fairly recent, seems in pretty good shape. This is an area that I intended to visit but I'm not sure there's anything left to check out. I did get some CM&E but that was quite a long time ago.

They built the bridge in 1913 which makes it 59 years young in my 1972 photo. However the bridge and the railroad are gone now, ripped out in 1979 and 1987.