UP - Redding Trestle

I can share a memory from this bridge. My parents and I took a rare family vacation from home in Los Angeles to northern California. The course of our travels brought us to an overnight in Redding. It was 1962 and I was 16. I should add that the last description anyone would have used for me was athletic. We stayed at a motel on Market Street after a day's driving and I took a walk towards the river. And from that street I saw the railroad bridge in the distance. And for some unknown and unexpected reason, I started to run across the open field to the bridge. It felt good to reach the bridge without stopping. I was not on to take any joy from running, but I was happy in that moment. I see now on the map the distance was about 3 tenths of a mile. Certainly not very far by any standard, but far enough to make a memory that stays with me to this day.

I grew up with this bridge. My brother Pat (now deceased) and friend Tom even tried to climb the trestle from the ground next to the river to the top. When we finally did reach the top a train was approaching from the Redding direction. We were too far from the end of the bridge to make it to safety, so we climbed over the side and hanged on until the 100 car freight train passed us by. We then climbed back down and never tried that again. From the Redding park on the north side of the river we watched many artists paint pictures of the bridge and or the old automobile bridge across the Sacramento river which were both beautiful sites that remain embedded in my brain nearly seventy years later.

Article in the September 2010 Trains Mag. that features this bridge.