Nostalgia & History > ATSF at Canyon Diablo - bridge remnants

(1-2) A westbound crosses the Canyon Diablo bridge in Arizona and the canyon.

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(3-5) Remnants of earlier bridges can be seen.
The Atlantic Pacific Railroad built the first bridge in 1881-82. After the structure arrived on 20 railcars it was unfortunately determined that it would be a number of feet short which caused delays till more material could be made and shipped.
In the meantime stone cutters from the eastern part of the country were brought out to build the stone footings that can be seen in the images. They used materials from the area.
The bridge was finally completed in 1882 (image 5) with a good view of the footings still there today (at least they were in the 90's).
It was a spindly looking bridge and trains crawled across at 4 mph.
As cars and engines got heavier the bridge certainly needed to be rebuilt and it was by 1900.
In image 4 (foreground) some of the foundation of that bridge can be seen.
It lasted till the current one was completed in 1947.

Oct 94

Thanks to William Ascarza of the Arizona Daily Star for this info from an article he wrote.

Gary

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Boy that first bridge, wow!  Spindly indeed.

Andy

Extremely interesting post.  Thanks.   Marty

Spindly would be a compliment!
Bob

Big difference in bridge designs, nice series.

Nathan