Early this month flood debris damaged the western part of the Railroad Bridge, a popular link in the Olympic Discovery Trail. For a couple of weeks the entire bridge was closed, although the landmark railroad trestle portion of the bridge is intact. Then fencing was constructed at either end of the damaged span to allow viewing and walking on the eastern trestle. Vandals promptly destroyed the fencing, which was quickly replaced. Yesterday I peered through the new fencing (which now has video monitoring) to catch this shot of the broken portion of the bridge.
Here’s the debris field just upstream of the bridge. It’s not hard to see how the bridge was undermined. This portion of the river, also, had been a secondary flow. In the course of the flooding the river channel shifted to flow more vigorously under this western side of the bridge.
The Jamestown S’Klallam tribe, which owns the bridge, plans to redesign, repair and reopen it. As you can see, they have their work cut out for them and there’s no estimate yet on how long this will take. In the meantime, trail users are detoured around this stretch of the Olympic Discovery Trail.
Tomorrow I’ll show you the undamaged portion of the bridge.
Sometimes we forget about the force of water. The damage done to the bridge is a reminder to us all.
Uh-oh! Hope the repairs are speedy.
Hopefully, there will be some bucks for the repair job.
What a shame! And to think vandals had to make it even worse!
Hopefully the work is done quickly.
Ouch. That is nasty. I hope it gets repaired soon.
Watching the surf here in Mazatlán show the strength of water and waves. Not surprising the damage that can be wrought.
Great shots of the bridge. Hope it is restored soon.