Qualla: Long Ravine Trestle: Where the Railroad Crossed Itself

Long Ravine Trestle: Where the Railroad Crossed Itself: Introduction

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bidgee, CC BY-SA 3.0 au. Every day, somewhere around mid-morning, the westbound California Zephyr rolls across a pair of steel bridges near Colfax, California, and most passengers glance down at the Interstate 80 traffic below without realizing they are crossing one of the most layered pieces of railroad history in the Sierra Nevada. The original bridge at this spot was a three-span Howe truss with wooden trestle approaches, built in the 1860s as part of the first transcontinental railroad. A decade later, the Nevada County Narrow Gauge Railroad threaded itself directly beneath the crossing. Two railroads, two gauges, two eras of ambition, stacked one above the other in a single ravine.

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Image: Bidgee | CC BY-SA 3.0 au

Long Ravine Trestle: Where the Railroad Crossed Itself: The First Crossing

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Thomas Houseworth & Co. -- Publisher, Public domain. The Central Pacific Railroad reached Long Ravine during its eastward push across the Sierra Nevada in the 1860s, laying the western half of what would become the first transcontinental railroad. The crossing required a three-span Howe truss bridge, a design that used diagonal woo...

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Image: Thomas Houseworth & Co. -- Publisher | Public domain

Long Ravine Trestle: Where the Railroad Crossed Itself: Tracks Beneath Tracks

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Muybridge, Eadweard, 1830-1904 -- Photographer, Public domain. Between 1875 and 1876, the Nevada County Narrow Gauge Railroad was constructed through the ravine, passing directly under the transcontinental line overhead. The narrow gauge connected the Gold Rush towns of Nevada City and Grass Valley to the main line at Colfax, hauling gold or...

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Image: Muybridge, Eadweard, 1830-1904 -- Photographer | Public domain

Long Ravine Trestle: Where the Railroad Crossed Itself: Iron Replaces Wood

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Sergey Yarmolyuk, CC BY-SA 4.0. By 1890, the wooden Howe truss had served its purpose for a quarter century, and the railroad replaced it with an iron structure better suited to the heavier locomotives and longer trains of the era. The transition from wood to iron at Long Ravine mirrored a broader transformatio...

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Image: Sergey Yarmolyuk | CC BY-SA 4.0

Long Ravine Trestle: Where the Railroad Crossed Itself: Steel, Asphalt, and the Zephyr

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Sergey Yarmolyuk, CC BY-SA 4.0. Today, Interstate 80 runs through Long Ravine beneath the twin bridges, adding a third layer of transportation infrastructure to a site that has been continuously crossed since the 1860s. The bridges carry Union Pacific Railroad's Roseville Subdivision, predominantly serving frei...

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Image: Sergey Yarmolyuk | CC BY-SA 4.0