Qualla: Crooked River Railroad Bridge

Crooked River Railroad Bridge: Introduction

Fri, 23 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Chris Light, CC BY-SA 4.0. The first train crossed on September 17, 1911. Half the rivets holding the bridge together had not yet been installed. This was not recklessness but urgency born of railroad war. Two of America's most powerful tycoons, James J. Hill and Edward Harriman, were racing their construction crews up the Deschutes River canyon toward Bend, Oregon, and the vast timber stands that lay beyond. The prize would go to whoever controlled the single point where the Crooked River could be crossed. Hill won that fight on December 1, 1909, when his Oregon Trunk Railroad acquired the Central Oregon Railroad Company, a paper railroad that owned no track but held the rights to the only bridge site where canyon walls stood close enough together to span.

Image: Chris Light | CC BY-SA 4.0

Crooked River Railroad Bridge: The Race for the Gorge

Fri, 23 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bobjgalindo, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Deschutes River canyon offered the only practical route into central Oregon's timber country. Hill's Oregon Trunk Railway started up the west bank while Harriman's Des Chutes Railroad claimed the east. The two lines jousted for position until North Junction, where Hill's crew...

Image: Bobjgalindo | CC BY-SA 4.0

Crooked River Railroad Bridge: Building from Both Sides

Fri, 23 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Tequask, CC BY-SA 4.0. Ralph Modjeski, the engineer who would later design the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, drew the plans. The Missouri Valley Bridge and Iron Company built the structure by cantilevering it out from rock walls on both sides of the canyon. A famous photograph shows workers climbin...

Image: Tequask | CC BY-SA 4.0

Crooked River Railroad Bridge: Four Months to the Golden Spike

Fri, 23 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Drew Jacksich from San Jose, CA, The Republic of California, CC BY-SA 2.0. Speed mattered more than caution. Hill needed to reach Bend and drive the golden spike before winter, so trains began crossing the partially-completed bridge on September 17. Workers spent weeks afterward finishing the riveting while locomotives rumbled overhead. Eighteen days la...

Image: Drew Jacksich from San Jose, CA, The Republic of California | CC BY-SA 2.0

Crooked River Railroad Bridge: Spanning the Canyon Today

Fri, 23 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Another Believer, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Crooked River Railroad Bridge remains in active service under BNSF Railway, standing as the second-highest railroad bridge in the United States when it was completed. Less than a mile upriver, three other crossings now span the gorge: the Crooked River High Bridge, the Rex T....

Image: Another Believer | CC BY-SA 3.0