GRNW - Clearwater River Bridge
Description
This bridge consists of two whipple spans joined together at the center bearing of a swing bridge (now immovable) and a overhead tension structure to help tie the two spans together.Facts
- Overview
- Whipple through truss bridge over Clearwater River on Great Northwest Railroad
- Location
- Kamiah, Lewis County, Idaho, and Idaho County, Idaho
- Status
- Open to traffic
- History
- Built 1900;
- Railroads
- - Bountiful Grain & Craig Mountain Railroad (BG&CM)
- Camas Prairie Railroad (CSP)
- Northern Pacific Railroad (NP)
- Design
- Whipple through truss
- Dimensions
-
Total length: 300.0 ft.
- Also called
- BG&CM - Clearwater River Bridge
- Approximate latitude, longitude
- +46.24102, -116.03770 (decimal degrees)
46°14'28" N, 116°02'16" W (degrees°minutes'seconds") - Approximate UTM coordinates
- 11/574188/5121276 (zone/easting/northing)
- Quadrangle map:
- Kamiah
- Elevation
- 1140 ft. above sea level
- Inventory number
- BH 56584 (Bridgehunter.com ID)
Update Log
- September 9, 2018: Updated by Fmiser: added length and description
- June 23, 2014: New photo from Douglas Butler
- June 12, 2013: Added by Luke Harden
Sources
- Luke
- Douglas Butler
- Idaho Scenic Images - Image
- The Fly Fishing Forum - Image
- Fmiser - fmiser [at] gmail [dot] com
Comments
Karl - Thanks for the history!
I saw this bridge through the trees as I was driving west on US12 - but time and my long trailer prevented me from stopping and exploring. My research since make me really regret that I didn't try harder to get to it.
I found a stock photo here:
https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-a-train-bridge-over-the-cl...
That, plus my memory and Douglas's drawing provided the data for the sketch I added. The sketch is probably not dimensionally accurate, but it shows the unusually construction.
This is a swing bridge over a non-navigable river. When the Clearwater River Railroad wars were taking place, the Northern Pacific and Oregon-Washington Railroad and Navigation (OWR&N) were racing towards the Kamiah region with its bountiful forests and just as bountiful fields of grain. The first one there would grab the honeypot. The NP was winning the war but the OWN&R had an upper hand. They convinced a judge that the Clearwater river (average depths of some 6 feet) was navigable and also that it was of such quality that a steamboat could navigate it, and therefore a bridge - an expensive movable bridge was necessary per US law.
In the spring thaw the river does indeed become a raging torrent and the OWN&R folks knew this. On a spring day they convinced the captain of a sternwheeler based in nearby Lewiston, rumored to be a notorious drunk, to make the run to Kamiah on dare. And he took up the challenge. With Judge and Jury on hand the steamboat made its one and only entry into Kamiah and the judge ordered that a movable bridge be built.
The motor mechanism is long removed and the rails welded close but the large bull gear remains.
This page's URL is http://bridgehunter.com/id/lewis/bh56584/
According to this Northern Pacific bridge book:
http://research.nprha.org/Tacoma%20Division%20Bridge%20Book/...
The truss was built here in 1916, indicating it was likely relocated. Could it be possible that this was originally a stationary span built elsewhere in the 1880s, and moved here?