Railroad bridges.

[JanOlov]

I just love those bridges that you could find on the Milwaukee Road. How was it on the other two big railroads up in the north, the GN and the NP? Not to mention the D&RGW and WP. Is there any good books about the railroad bridges in the US?
Any favorites??

[ironhorseman]

I'm not familiar with specific railroad bridges in America. Probably being from Kansas has something to do with it! We have some small, small trough truss briges in southeast Kansas, but nothing spectacular that I can think of offhand. Bigger bridges would be found the further north and east one goes in the state of Kansas, but again, nothing stands out in my mind (I've been thinking about this subject since yesterday.) Kansas City, of course, has big steel briges because of the rugged geography of the region with the hills and the Kansas and Missouri rivers. There the type of bridges I would like to model in a model railroad layout someday.

I've always been impressed with the old iron/steel bridges of the eastern US. Especially the ones around coal country and in the Appalacian Mountains. Again, I couldn't tell you specifically which ones, I've only seen them in books and videos.

The railroad bridge I'm most impressed with, and it shouldn't go unmentioned here, is the bridge over the Firth of Forth in Scotland. That thing is just massive and old, built in 1890.

Other bridges I like are the old wooden trestles built in the 1800s during the trancontinental building days. They didn't and couldn't last forever, and wouldn't hold a train today, but they're just incredible to look at.

I got interested in bridges in high school when I picked it as a topic for a speech class. There is a wealth of information on bridges in the united states and bridge building in general. Unfortunatly I don't know if you'll find anything in a book store but a university library should have pleanty of information. Public libraries could be a good resource too.

Happy hunting

[coalminer3]

There are several books on bridges out there; one that comes to mind is, IIRC, Railroad Bridges of America. Now as for favorite bridges, in no particular order. Hell Gate is right at the top of the list; the Eads Bridge in St. Louis is another one along with the Suspension Bridge in Wheeling. Now the VGN had some interesting bridges: some that come to mind are at Slab Fork, WV, Oakvale, WV, Kellysville, WV, and Deepwater, WV. There is another real interesting one on the C&O near Terry, WV where the C&O crosses New River on its way to Raleigh. Another C&O bridge of note is at Hawks Nest, WV - you feel like you're in the river. How about the B&O's crossing at Harper's Ferry? Two bridges AND a tunnel. One I remember from being on the GN (in reference to earlier part of this thread) was just west of Cut Bank, MT, IIRC; it was like the train went airborne. Ironhorseman, let's not forget covered rr bridges up in New England - lots of memories for me there. BTW, look around for photographs by David Plowden - he has a real feel for rr infrastructure as did the late Phil Hastings.

Hope this helps

work safe

[AltonFan]

And of course, there is a plethora of moveable bridges of various kinds in Chicago!