The Pit River Bridge (officially the Veterans of Foreign Wars Memorial Bridge) is a double deck, deck truss, road and rail bridge over Shasta Lake in Shasta County,

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. The bridge, carrying Interstate 5 on its upper deck and

Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...

on its lower deck, was built in 1942 as part of the construction of the

Shasta Dam Shasta Dam (called Kennett Dam before its construction) is a concrete arch-gravity dam across the Sacramento River in Northern California in the United States. At high, it is the eighth-tallest dam in the United States. Located at the north e ...

/Shasta Lake reservoir system. The Pit River Bridge was constructed to replace the Lower Pit River Bridge, as the rising waters of the Shasta Lake reservoir would have put the older bridge underwater. The entire bridge spans long on the upper deck and on the lower deck. With a height of above the old Pit River bed, it is structurally the highest double decked bridge in the United States; however, today the bridge sits only about above the water when Shasta Lake is full. The bridge is Interstate 5's halfway point. At the time it was built, the highway on the bridge was signed as

U.S. Route 99 U.S. Route 99 (US 99) was a main north–south United States Numbered Highway on the West Coast of the United States until 1964, running from Calexico, California, on the US–Mexico border to Blaine, Washington, on the U.S.-Canada border ...

and the rail line was owned by

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 ...

. The '' Coast Starlight'', the passenger train line operated by

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

that runs between

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

and

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

, also uses the bridge. The bridge is officially known as the ''Veterans of Foreign Wars Memorial Bridge'', to honor

military veterans A veteran () is a person who has significant experience (and is usually adept and esteemed) and expertise in a particular occupation or field. A military veteran is a person who is no longer serving in a military. A military veteran that has ...

from California who have fought in foreign wars. The Pit River Bridge was the subject of the 1954

Pulitzer Prize for Photography The Pulitzer Prize for Photography was one of the American Pulitzer Prizes annually awarded for journalism. It was inaugurated in 1942 and replaced by two photojournalism prizes in 1968: the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography and "Pulitzer Pri ...

winner entitled "Rescue on Pit River Bridge", taken by

Virginia Schau Virginia Margaret (Brown) Schau (February 23, 1915 – May 28, 1989) was an American who was the first woman and second amateur to win the Pulitzer Prize for Photography, which she was awarded in 1954. The award-winning photograph was taken in ...

. Pit River bridge, Shasta County, California. Notice the protective nets underneath (cut).jpg, Pit River Bridge Pit River Bridge.jpg, Pit River Bridge before its pylons were inundated by Shasta Lake Construction work on Pit River bridge. Shasta County, California (cut).jpg, Construction work on Pit River bridge Pit River Bridge (circa 1942).jpg, Circa 1942 Rescue on Pit River Bridge.jpg, "Rescue on Pit River Bridge"

References

Road bridges in California Road-rail bridges in the United States Railroad bridges in California Buildings and structures in Shasta County, California Bridges on the Interstate Highway System Interstate 5 Pit River Union Pacific Railroad bridges Bridges completed in 1942 Warren truss bridges in the United States 1942 establishments in California {{California-bridge-struct-stub

See also

References