PE - Santa Ana River Pegram Truss
Photos
Photo taken by Steven Miller
License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND)
BH Photo #241910
Facts
- Overview
- Pegram through truss bridge over Santa Ana River Channel on Pacific Electric Railway
- Location
- Santa Ana, Orange County, California
- Status
- Closed to all traffic
- History
- Built 1920; Abandoned 1950; Closed off early 1970s
- Builders
- - Edge Moor Bridge Works of Wilmington, Delaware
- George Pegram of Council Bluffs, Iowa
- Railroads
- - Interurban
- Pacific Electric Railway (PE)
- Southern Pacific Railroad (SP)
- Design
- Two span Pegram truss
- Dimensions
-
Length of largest span: 140.0 ft.
Total length: 302.0 ft.
Deck width: 13.0 ft.
- Recognition
- Eligible for the National Register of Historic Places
- Also called
- PE - Santa Ana River Bridge (Santa Ana)
- Approximate latitude, longitude
- +33.75253, -117.90644 (decimal degrees)
33°45'09" N, 117°54'23" W (degrees°minutes'seconds") - Approximate UTM coordinates
- 11/416048/3735086 (zone/easting/northing)
- Quadrangle map:
- Anaheim
- Elevation
- 86 ft. above sea level
- Inventory number
- BH 50166 (Bridgehunter.com ID)
Update Log
- May 8, 2019: Updated by Luke: Added link to historic image
- November 20, 2018: Updated by Luke: Updated build date
- July 28, 2017: Updated by Luke: Added builder based on design details + noted that bridge was more than likely relocated.
- July 25, 2017: Updated by Luke: Added link to historical image
- June 12, 2016: Updated by Luke: Noted that the bridge is NRHP eligible and that the bridge's future is at risk.
- June 11, 2016: Updated by Christopher Finigan: Added category "Pin-connected"
- May 30, 2016: Updated by Luke: Added build date
- December 27, 2012: Updated by Clark Vance: Added category "George Pegram"
- December 26, 2012: New photos from Craig Philpott
- October 25, 2012: Photo imported by Luke Harden
- October 23, 2012: Updated by Luke Harden: Removed "Los Angeles" from Pacific Electric Railway in description as the line was only named "Pacific Electric"
- October 23, 2012: Updated by Clark Vance: Added categories "Los Angeles Pacific Electric Railways", "Interurban"
- November 14, 2011: Updated by Craig Philpott: refined description
- November 13, 2011: New photo from Luke Harden
- November 13, 2011: Updated by Tony Dillon: It is a Pegram truss
- November 13, 2011: New Street View added by Clark Vance
- November 12, 2011: Added by Craig Philpott
Sources
- Craig Philpott - craigphilpott63 [at] gmail [dot] com
- Clark Vance - cvance [at] dogmail [dot] com
- Tony Dillon - spansaver [at] hotmail [dot] com
- Luke
- Santa Ana River Main Stem and Santiago Creek: Environmental Impact Statement - Book
- ShareMap.org - Map of dismantled Pacific Electric Railways (Red Cars) system in Los Angeles area. -
- Santa Ana-Garden Grove Fixed Guideway Project Bridge Design Option Technical Report - Technical Report.pdf
- Flickr
- Santa Ana Line, Bellflower LIne - Southern California Railway Museum - Image
Comments
According to https://books.google.com/books?id=IFhNAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA729&lpg=...
the Pacific Electric upgraded a pile trestle across the Santa Ana near King Street (Which is to the east of this bridge.) in 1920 with steel spans.
By this time, the Pacific Electric was under Southern Pacific control, so the spans (And the other known relocated spans) are most definitely secondhands from the SP.
Problem now is finding where any of them came from.
http://www.ci.santa-ana.ca.us/pwa/documents/AppendixF_part1....
Reading this, a parallel light rail bridge is proposed to be built alongside the bridge, not detracting from the historic nature. Hopefully this plan will ultimately be executed.
Great photos, Craig.
I just thought it was a polygonal Warren at first...But I do agree that it indeed a Pegram with inclined verticals as apposed to being all diagonal members.
Good eye on that one Clark!
There is a good photo over on panoramio of this bridge and yes, the top chord segments do appear to be the same length. Interesting.
It's hard to tell the length of the segments in the top chord but might this be a Pegram Truss?
Other remarks on the web suggest this is abandoned from an old electric trolly system in the region. This would make sense since the width is less then a standard gauge single track bridge. There is also a photo accessible through street view on google maps that indicates this bridge is an interesting design with a curved top chord and tilted compression members. None of the "vertical" compression members are exactly vertical but rather are tilted toward the center.
Santa Ana River Trail is on both sides of this bridge...looks like this would be a perfect way to connect them!
This page's URL is http://bridgehunter.com/ca/orange/bh50166/
Good news: There's a streetcar line being constructed in the area, and the line is going to cross the river on it's own bridge, leaving this nationally notable bridge intact and unmodified.