Placer County, California Bridges: Long Ravine RR Trestle across I-80

November 2012 (39.123 Degrees, -120.940 Degrees) Long Ravine RR Trestle Bridge

The next big railroad viaduct over I-80 is the Long Ravine Railroad Trestle Bridge just past Colfax. Because trains can't climb steep grades, they cross back and forth over and under the expressway whenever the grade gets too high. This bridge is similar to the Auburn Ravine Viaduct only with deep girders to carry the stringers over the expressway.

Older photos (from 1870) show a long timber trestle bridge, which was replaced with embankments and an 878 ft long steel viaduct, perhaps when the expressway was built.  It must have been cheaper to build a long timber trestle bridge than a long embankment in the 19th century.

Placer County, California Bridges: Long Ravine RR Trestle across I-80 by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License.