Southern Railway Bridges
nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
Thu Nov 3 21:08:31 EST 2005
Since Southern Railway wins the contest as to who has the longest bridges
on today's Norfolk Southern, let's go for the record on bridge height as
well.
I don't know about it being the highest, but let's consider Wells Viaduct on
the Southern located two miles south of Toccoa, Ga. and a few miles north
of Gainesville. This is a doubletrack bridge 1,400 feet long over the
North Fork of the Broad River. This steel bridge rests on 10 reinforced
concrete
piers, some of which are 200 feet high above water level. The closest
competition I can think of is that location on the CNO&TP in Kentucky
where the Southern came out of a tunnel and crossed the Cumberland
River. I think the tunnel has been daylighted and a new bridge built
since that famous photo of 1941 was made with the A-B-B-A consist of
F Units leading a freight train out of the tunnel and across the bridge.
The fireman leaning out of the cab in that photo went into the Marines
and was killed serving his country during World War Two. Bill Sellers.
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