The Union Street Railroad Bridge is a
vertical lift
Vertical is a geometric term of location which may refer to:
* Vertical direction, the direction aligned with the direction of the force of gravity, up or down
* Vertical (angles), a pair of angles opposite each other, formed by two intersecting ...
, Pratt through
truss bridge that spans the
Willamette River in
Salem
Salem may refer to: Places
Canada
Ontario
* Bruce County
** Salem, Arran–Elderslie, Ontario, in the municipality of Arran–Elderslie
** Salem, South Bruce, Ontario, in the municipality of South Bruce
* Salem, Dufferin County, Ontario, part ...
,
Oregon,
United States, built in 1912–13. It was last used by trains in the early 1990s and was sold for one dollar in 2003 to the City of Salem, which converted it to bicycle and pedestrian use in 2008–2009. It was added to the
National Register of Historic Places in 2006.
History
The bridge was engineered by
Waddell & Harrington, and the lift span uses their patented lift bridge design.
The bridge was built for the
Salem, Falls City and Western Railway (SFC&W), which was incorporated in 1901 as a
logging
Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks or skeleton cars.
Logging is the beginning of a supply chain ...
railroad by
Louis Gerlinger and
Charles K. Spaulding
Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was " ...
.
After the initial construction of a line between
Dallas and
Falls City in 1903, the line reached the formerly separate city of
West Salem in 1909; passenger service across the Willamette to Salem was provided by ferry.
[ ]Southern Pacific
The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials- SP) was an American Class I railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was operated by various companies under the ...
(SP) gained full control of the Salem, Falls City and Western in 1912, and built what was then known as the Salem, Falls City & Western Railway Bridge to connect the line to the Valley Main Line in 1913.[ The railway was not officially purchased by Southern Pacific until 1915, at which time the SFC&W line was listed in the SP timetable as an SP branch line.][ Since SP had acquired the ]Portland, Eugene and Eastern Railway
The Southern Pacific Red Electric Lines, also known simply as the Red Electric, was a network of interurban passenger train services operated by the Southern Pacific Transportation Company, Southern Pacific Railroad in the Willamette Valley of th ...
(PE&E) about the same time, and SP had planned to use the PE&E name for an electric interurban network that was to rival the Oregon Electric Railway
The Oregon Electric Railway (OE) was an interurban railroad line in the U.S. state of Oregon that linked Portland to Eugene. Service from Portland to Salem began in January 1908. The Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway purchased the system in ...
, the bridge is also known as the Portland, Eugene & Eastern Railroad Bridge.[
The bridge has two towers that rise an additional above the tall structure of the bridge's trusses, a 134-foot-long (41 m) center lift span, and a total length of , excluding the timber ]trestle
ATLAS-I (Air Force Weapons Lab Transmission-Line Aircraft Simulator), better known as Trestle, was a unique electromagnetic pulse (EMP) generation and testing apparatus built between 1972 and 1980 during the Cold War at Sandia National Laborato ...
on the western end. The bridge's five spans sit atop five concrete piers designed to rise above mean low water, which was intended to hold the rails above the highest possible flood waters. The lift span was designed to provide a clearance during high water conditions. The lift span has been inoperable since 1980, and sometime after 1980 the operator's house – which sat atop the lift span – was removed.[
Regular service of passenger and freight trains ended in 1945. The date of the last train to cross the bridge is unknown but is believed to be in the early 1990s.][ The City of Salem acquired the bridge in 2003 from the Union Pacific Railroad (which absorbed Southern Pacific in 1996) for one dollar. The railroad set up a $550,000 fund for maintenance. A $3.2 million renovation and conversion project transformed it into a bicycle and pedestrian bridge linking Riverfront Park and downtown Salem on the east with Wallace Marine Park and West Salem on the west. The conversion work began in 2008 and the bridge reopened, now as pedestrian bridge, on April 18, 2009.][
]
See also
*
* List of crossings of the Willamette River
This is a list of bridges and other crossings of the Willamette River in the U.S. state of Oregon from the Columbia River upstream to the confluence of the Middle Fork Willamette River and Coast Fork Willamette River. This confluence, at , is co ...
* Image from west end
References
External links
Bridge Conversion Project
from the City of Salem
from the City of Falls City
Historic images of the Union Street Railroad Bridge
from Salem Public Library
{{National Register of Historic Places Oregon
Vertical lift bridges in Oregon
Bridges completed in 1913
Railroad bridges in Oregon
Railroad bridges on the National Register of Historic Places in Oregon
Buildings and structures in Salem, Oregon
Former railway bridges in the United States
Bridges over the Willamette River
Transportation buildings and structures in Polk County, Oregon
Transportation in Salem, Oregon
National Register of Historic Places in Salem, Oregon
Pedestrian bridges in Oregon
1913 establishments in Oregon
Drawbridges on the National Register of Historic Places
Pratt truss bridges in the United States
Metal bridges in the United States
Trestle bridges in the United States
