Long_Ravine_Trestle
Long Ravine Trestle
Railway bridges near Colfax, California
Long Ravine Trestle is a pair of deck plate girder railway bridges near Colfax, California.[1] They carry the Union Pacific Railroad Roseville Subdivision over Long Ravine and Interstate 80, traversing the Sierra Nevada. The original crossing was a three-span Howe truss bridge with wooden trestle approaches, constructed as part of the first transcontinental railroad.[2] The Nevada County Narrow Gauge Railroad was subsequently constructed under the bridge between 1875 and 1876.[3] The trestle portions of the bridge were replaced with embankments by this time.[4] The original wooden trestle was replaced with an iron structure in 1890.[5] Southern Pacific double tracked the line and constructed the two modern bridges, completed in 1912 and 1913,[6] to carry the rails. The southern span was retrofitted in the late 1958 to allow for the new U.S. Route 40 freeway to be routed underneath.[6] The bridge is predominantly used for freight trains, but is utilized by the daily Amtrak California Zephyr.