Randolph County Road 2580 Bridge

I love these old wooden rail structures! When I was a kid, there were many of them on main roads that crossed the myriad of rail lines that were still in use around Milwaukee. I always enjoyed the cheap thrill of crossing them, the humming sound of tires on concrete suddenly changing to the rumble of each individual board of the deck being strained by the weight of our car. I remember pleading with The Old Man to drive faster - there was always a steep approach followed by an abrupt jump to the flat deck followed by a jump to the decline on the opposite steep approach span. In my fertile imagination, the tires always left the surface and we flew to the other side. The reality was never even close to it, but imaginations are unlimited.

In fact, there was always a flashing image of our car falling to the rails as the old wooden structure collapsed - you just can't duplicate that thrill at Six Flags!

Sadly, most of those active rail lines have long since been abandoned. The familar click-click-click of tires crossing expansion joints on concrete streets has been replaced by asphalt surfacing.

Many of the old wooden bridges are also gone, at least in the larger urban areas, either replaced with UCEBs or removed and not replaced at all. There are still plenty of wooden structures in rural areas and like James, I'm trying to hunt them down for inclusion here before they go away forever.

(The photo is the Woodford Drive bridge over the Eisenbahn Trail in Washington County, Wisconsin. While it isn't all wood, the wood deck still rumbles when you cross it.)