A double-intersection Whipple truss built by Clarke, Reeves & Co., predecessors of the Phoenix Bridge Co., and one of the rarest bridges we’ve ever saved.
September 28, 2018
We’re expecting equipment and planks to arrive in the next few days to begin decking Hayden Bridge, keeping to the original layout of the bridge’s railbed. We’ll need help with railing: it will cost about $150 per foot, or about $60,000. We think the local community might help with that once they see progress on the bridge. Our anonymous donor, to whom we are very grateful, only wants the bridge to stand for a very long time. (We nixed the idea of a grated deck. Not good for dogs.)
January 4, 2018
Over the 2018 winter we started working the site at Hayden Bridge with Gene Burks, clearing overgrown blackberries and the vines strangling the firs, and opening views of the bridge that hadn’t been seen from Marcola Road in some time. We also met with the local parks district about their land and trails acquisition in their next master plan. This bridge would anchor a great park on the McKenzie River in Springfield, Oregon, and create the northern gateway to the city.
We had planned to plank the bridge within the original railroad curbs. We’ve since widened the plans for the intended multi-use crossing.
The bridge
The coolest thing is the bridge itself, and its rarity is why we had to save it. Made of cast and wrought iron, it first served in the 1880s as a crossing of the Black River in Utah on the transcontinental railroad, just twenty miles from the golden spike. In 1896 it was taken apart and moved to Oregon to carry logging trains from Wendling to Springfield.
Last owned by Weyerhaeuser, it was decommissioned in 1989. Workin’ Bridges stepped in with a plan to save the bridge in place when removing and storing it proved very expensive. An extensive collection of historic documents covers the bridge’s erection and the railroad to Wendling.
