Great Northern High Bridge

The location shown for this bridge about 0.25 miles downstream from the W Fort George Wright Drive bridge is the location of the original Great Northern bridge across the Spokane River downstream from Spokane Falls. This bridge was built around 1890. Like the older Chicago and Northwestern crossing of the Des Moines River west of Boone, Iowa, the GN descended to the bottom of the valley and then climbed the other side. The GN high bridge or viaduct of 1902, similar in vintage to the Kate Shelley viaduct , eliminated the grades on either side of the Spokane River. The center of the GN high bridge was located at approximately +47.666020, -117.462822 decimal degrees. The 1950 USGS 1:24,000 scale Spokane NW topographic map shows the location of the GN high bridge. The 1901 USGS 1:125,000 scale Spokane topographic map shows the location of the pre-1902 bridge.