Aside from the old truss bridges at Perkinsville and Walnut Grove, the railroad span across Hell Canyon has to be one of my favorites. I do not have a date for this image, but Hell Canyon carries a running stream, which means that it's spring runoff season. One of my secret dreams is to ride across this bridge in one of those funny autos that railroad inspectors drive down the tracks. Remember when they used open hand-pumped cars?
Of course, every little stream or wash needs to be bridged for railroad loads. This particular crossing is up in the juniper woods north of Paulden and Drake.
Two bridges for the auto age. Above is a total mystery, unless it is possibly the Old89 bridge across Hell Canyon; it certainly does not look to be in use at the time the picture was taken. The modern span below is, I'm pretty sure, US93 at Burro Creek (my clue: what looked to be saguaros on the slopes). I'd appreciate word from anyone who can correct or verify.
Have I mentioned that my late husband not only was an excellent photographer, but that I have thousands of his images stored in boxes and folders. Unfortunately far too many of the pictures are 35mm slides and, though I have a rather pricey scanner, Nikon has not seen fit to upgrade its drivers for the latest Mac OS. Grrr!!! I know that there are more pictures of the Hell Canyon crossings, both old US89 and the Santa Fe, as well as the old truss bridge across Kirkland Creek at Yava. Among many others.Bridge Linkage: As I was trying to ID my bridges by consulting The Google, interesting references cropped up. F'rinstance, specs for several historic Yavapai County bridges. Tombo has posted one of his great pix of the Hell Canyon railroad bridge at Wikipedia; there's a 1920 postcard of the same span with a train crossing for $9.95 at eBay, and I got completely caught up in reading of the rise and fall of the Santa Fe route through Prescott at Google books.
Hoping that you'll get that picture of the old Yava bridge up. Hated to see it go, but it was a safety hazard. The new bridge has no personality. You almost don't even know there is a creek there.
ReplyDeleteRay
RR bridges sans choo choos, pooh.
ReplyDeleteHermano
ray -- you wouldn't know there's a creek there because ADOT used those awful no-see-um barriers on both sides. Those barriers totally block the bridge view of most of our free running streams. ARGH!!!
ReplyDeletebro -- we should have been so lucky. You can always buy that postcard.
That is indeed the Burro Creek bridge. I snagged a shot of that last time I was over as well, although it looks like your hubbie climbed down into the valley to get his shot. :)
ReplyDeleteIt's also a bit rustier now. :)
tombo -- thanks for confirming my hunch about the Burro Creek bridge. Now, is the picture above it the Old 89 crossing of Hell Canyon???
ReplyDeleteI don't believe that is the 89 bridge. All the photos I took of the road bridge show nothing but concrete.
ReplyDeleteExample one as seen from the railroad bridge
Example Two as seen from Perkinsville road.
Example Three as seen from underneath.
The lattice work on your image is unfamiliar to me.
thanks, tom -- you confirmed my memory, which was a hazy dim picture of concrete. Now I have a real mystery on my hand. And, of course, having pulled the print out of the context of its envelope, I'm quite at a loss as to its provenance. BTW, the example #3 is awesome.
ReplyDelete