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BNSF - Spider Leg Bridge

Santa Fe County, New Mexico

Photo 

Apache Canyon Railroad Bridge, Isometric View of Downstream (SouthEast) Side

Shown is the center pier spanning Galisteo Creek.

Photo taken by Arlo James Barnes in September 2012

License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike (CC BY-SA)

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BH Photo #394912

Map 

Description 

The Apache Canyon Bridge crosses the canyon diagonally. The girders are 105 ft. in length. The track, intersecting three loops of the Galisteo River at Apache Canyon, makes six crossings over a space of more than two thousand feet. An extremely oblique skew span (105 ft. long) is capable of center support by a transverse secondary span at the center arranged to transform the primary span into two continuous plate girder deck spans. The ends of the bridge rest on abutments on opposite sides of the canyon. The center line of the track is on a ten degree curve and is 14% inches off the center line of the plate girder bridge at the center and at both ends of the span. The abutments are anchored in granite rock on both sides of the canyon. The trackbed on the structure measures ten feet in width and the distance between the center point of the structure and the shorter pedestal supporting the deck girder is sixteen feet.

Facts 

Overview
Deck plate girder bridge over Apache Canyon/Galisteo Creek on Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Company
Location
Santa Fe County, New Mexico
Status
Open to traffic
History
Built 1908
Builder
- American Bridge Co. of New York
Railroads
- Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway (ATSF)
- BNSF Railway (BNSF)
Design
Deck plate girder
Dimensions
Total length: 105.0 ft.
Recognition
Posted to the National Register of Historic Places
Also called
ATSF - Spider Leg Bridge
BNSF - Apache Canyon Bridge
ATSF - Apache Canyon Bridge
Approximate latitude, longitude
+35.51425, -105.85635   (decimal degrees)
35°30'51" N, 105°51'23" W   (degrees°minutes'seconds")
Approximate UTM coordinates
13/422347/3930410 (zone/easting/northing)
Quadrangle map:
Glorieta
Inventory numbers
NRHP 79001553 (National Register of Historic Places reference number)
BH 72727 (Bridgehunter.com ID)

Categories 

American Bridge Co. (1,522)
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway (451)
BNSF Railway (1,515)
Built 1908 (713)
Built during 1900s (7,258)
Curved (463)
Deck girder (5,782)
Girder (10,305)
NR-listed (2,963)
 New Mexico (206)
Open (39,993)
Owned by railroad (12,504)
Plate girder (7,989)
Railroad (15,612)
Santa Fe County, New Mexico (15)
Skewed (4,917)
Total length 100-125 feet (5,192)

Update Log 

  • June 20, 2017: Updated by Luke: Corrected build date + added builder
  • June 20, 2017: New photo from Arlo James Barnes
  • July 5, 2016: Updated by J.P.: Added category "Burlington Northern Railroad"

Sources 

Comments 

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