There is so much to consider with this mysteriously powerful photograph. It loads larger than screen size, so you need to scroll to see it all. If you scroll over to the right, and look near the bottom, you can see (far below) a very crude timber bridge over a small waterway. Looking at that little bridge is a key that gives perspective to the main view out onto the railroad bridge, which is the subject of the photo. The railroad bridge is spectacular in height, but also amazing in the degree of deck deterioration.
By the look of it, the railroad rails are resting on standard length ties, and the rest of walkway decking is supported somewhat differently. The overall impression is that the decking and its support look extremely uncertain if you would be thinking about walking across. And yet the walkways are generously wide and running on both sides.
Early rail roading at best. Notice the lack of tie plates and very light weight iron rail. Large iron spikes would place this around 1860 or before. Rough sawn ties barley square and not a hint of preservitive. Very nice vintage photo. Looking again it seems to be a very broad gauge. Also no gard timbers or rails.
Yes, a very interesting photo of a very early RR bridge. And it appears no connecting bars to bolt rails together where they join. Appears to be somekind of metal piece spiked with 2 spikes at the joint.
Bridge appears to have some age on it when photo was taken. The heavy timbers besides the rails off this end of the bridge look to be in rotting condition.
Paying attention to appearance back then on RR projects seemed to have had some priority such as the uprights on railing, and the entry to bridge posts. They look to have been there for some time with their off plumb stance.
The walkways on either side of the track are unusually wide, almost like it was a double duty bridge of some kind…But then those wide walkways connect to nothing at the ends of the bridge. One walking across would have to get between the rails to exit the bridge end…Which would tell me perhaps no horse and small cart / buggy was intended to be using it…Looks to be intended for double duty, but I can’t figure just what.
Track is rather wavey looking out over the structure. Track gauge…?? Not sure.
But…The photo is a good one and interesting to take a close look at the details. Thanks for sharing it.
This is a great shot with enough information to figure out its history. Right now I’m working on a Trains Map of the Month on the railroad system of 1860, so I have all the research materials handy.
The railroad in question is the South Side Railroad and you keen observers are correct. It’s 5 foot gauge.
The South Side was built in 1850 (hence the aged appearance of the wood, went into the Atlantic, Mississippi & Ohio in 1871 and the Norfolk & Western in 1881.
Bill Metzger
Contributing Illustrator, Trains and Classic Trains
Who doesn’t love Shorpy, both the miner kid and the site.I check it out daily at lunch. The boss invariably comes by when I’m eating to ask “what are you doing?”. I’ll either answer “a BLT” or “Shorpy”.
Here is another photo of the same bridge taken by Timothy O’Sullivan, the same photographer who took the photo I posted above. Both photos were taken in 1865 when the bridge was being repaired after the civil war. I would say that this is taken from the end opposite the viewpoint of the first photo. That building at the opposite end in the first photo appears to be the one in the upper left corner of this photo. According to some other references, that difference in the trestle support structure is related to damage suffered in the civil war.
This original bridge was replaced in 1914 with an all steel bridge, which still stands, and is being preserved as part of a trail. Here is some information about the old bridge and the current bridge. It says the stone piers of the old bridge still stand alongsid
…The “new high bridge” in place now and about to support a walking /biking trail much resembles the former Western Maryland RR viaduct that crosses a very wide valley, river, rt. 219 {both old and new} and former main line east / west B&O, now CSX…,near Meyersdale, Pa.
It is now supporting the Allegheny trail east / west. I have nice several photos I have taken from the top of that structure.
The bridge is known as the Salisbury Viaduct…Size is very similar. It too was built for double track, but never contained a 2nd track. It now has a great concrete floor, with proper metal / wire mesh side rails. A great view of the CSX main and activity that passes under it.
I remember that bridge and still think it’s a shame that NS didn’t pick up that line. It was so much better engineered than the original B&O alignment.
It looks this high bridge was originally quite well built. The piers appear to be finely built of coursed stone masonry, and support intricate timber box trusses having an integrated bowstring feature. That is an interesting combination of features. I would think that the trusses could have been adequate without the bowstring or timber arch feature. The boxes alone have their top and bottom chords, so the arch seems redundant. Maybe the combination was just a redundancy fashion of the day. I believe that I have seen that type of timber truss in other old photos. Some of the early arch bar trucks had structural redundancy, suggesting that the designer did not fully comprehend the engineering performance of the structure.
Some of the links mention attempts to burn this bridge to gain an advantage during the civil war. Apparently the missing box trusses were burned, and the rather spindly pilings and timber bents are a temporary replacement to get the bridge back into service. It would be interesting to see what this bridge structure looked like in its final days before being replaced by the steel bridge in 1914.
Yep; that’s the Appomattox River near Farmville, VA. Not very wide (40-50) yards and not very deep (3-5 ft) in normal flow situations. Where I live (Colonial Heights, VA) the Appomattox becomes over 200 yards wide and 20 feet deep until it’s confluence with the James River at Hopewell, VA. The bridge needed to be so high, not because of the river, per se, but because of the deep valley the river carved out hundreds of thousands of years ago.
So that little bridge in the lower right corner of the photo must be the wagon road and bridge over the river that was attempted to be burned during the civil war, but proved to be too wet and green to burn.
This bridge known as the “High Bridge” on the South Side Railroad is covered in Civil War Railroads by George Abdill. The bridge was fired by the Confederates on 4/7/1865 as they evacuated Petersburg. Four of the box trusses burned before the pursuing Federal forces extinguished the fire. The fill-in spindly trestlework is temporary replacement for the four trusses that we
Here is that other bridge that I mentioned above referenced in George Abdill’s book. It is composed of just one of the unique military designed trusses that is identical to the 25 trusses used on the Farmville High Bridge as they appear in the photo linked to the preceding post. This is the Bull Run Bridge on the Orange & Alexandria RR, one of seven bridges built at this location. Six were destroyed by military action and one was washed out by the stream. Here are two photos:
I began this thread with a focus only on the gigantic / mysterious bridge and the haunting quality of the antique photograph of it. This led me to wonder about the nature of the structure supporting the bridge. Discovering that information led to wondering about the interesting timber trusses used for the twenty-five spans of this bridge, and wonder about the apparent redundancy of a box truss combined with an arch. This led to the discovery of the origin and identity of this unique truss design, which was pioneered by Pennsylvania Railroad bridge engineer, Herman Haupt.
This truss design is an outgrowth of the timber lattice truss, which was a box truss reinforced by diagonal latticework bracing. Haupt was also a pioneer in the development of this lattice truss, but the structural shortcomings of the design led him to overcome the deficiency by the addition of an arch. However, the arch and the lattice truss do not simply add their strength together. Instead, the primary load-carrying element is the arch, and the lattice truss merely adds reinforcement to maintain the shape of the arch. So there is no redundancy between the box truss and the arch because they both have different functions. Fundamentally, for the arch to fail, it must buckle, so the lattice truss maintains the
The several pic’s of the Haupt’s arch / truss bridge design is certainly interesting. And the rather close up photo, taken from near one end, seems to display the arch is really a double arch {each side}…With the struts passing between each arch and I assume bolted at that point.
I’m assuming those sizable arches are constructed by laminating wood together to get the desireable size. Similar to many church support designs.
One item I’m wondering about…I see no type of bracing or struts to make sure {looking at it from it’s end}, it remains a rectangle shape…as opposed to trying to become a “trapezoid” shape, from wind or other forces.
I’m always amazed to see large pieces {arches}, used in building a structure a hundred and fifty years ago…and wondering just how they were physically put up in place. What kind of machines…?
In the book reference I have, it says these arch trusses were assembled in place, and that block and tackles were used to handle the individual timbers.
…I suppose there would have been some steam powered cranes that were built together on site, and that rotated, but certainly, something like that would not have been available everywhere.
I’ve seen pic’s of some sort of cranes on the top surface of a trestle as it’s construction process moved forward…The one I have in mind is an old photo showing building the Western Maryland RR trestle now known as the “Sallisbury Viaduct”, located near Meyersdaye, Pa.
Not sure of the age of that structure without looking it up, but I’m sure it was not a hundred and fifty years ago. By the way…it still stands and it is a link in the Allegheny Trail now. It now has a very well designed concrete floor and proper metal gardrail for safety.
Salisbury Viaduct was built in 1910-12 by the McClintic Marshall Co., a subsidiary of Bethlehem Steel. These were the same guys who, 20 or so years later, built the Golden Gate Bridge.
They used an electric crane to hoist the beams in place. 7 workers were killed when the crane failed.
And yes, it has a fine concrete surface and handrails and is a great place to watch the CSX trains below.
Here is that other bridge that I mentioned above referenced in George Abdill’s book. It is composed of just one of the unique military designed trusses that is identical to the 25 trusses used on the Farmville High Bridge as they appear in the photo linked to the preceding post. This is the Bull Run Bridge on the Orange & Alexandria RR, one of seven bridges built at this location. Six were destroyed by military action and one was washed out by the stream. Here are two photos: