Just when you think you’ve seen everything unique and incredible about California, up pops something that no other state or country, for that matter, has- the world’s longest wooden trestle bridge.
Let’s take a walk back in time and discover this long-abandoned, amazing structure.
Firstly, it’s very close to the border with Mexico.
Secondly, be prepared for a grueling trek in the rough terrain of the snake-ridden desert if you wish to access it. Having warned you, let’s tell its story…
The Goat Canyon Trestle is a wooden trestle in San Diego County. At a length of 597–750 feet, it is the world’s largest all-wood trestle.
It was built as part of the San Diego and Arizona Eastern Railway after one of the many tunnels through the Carrizo Gorge collapsed.
In the early 1900s San Diego wanted a faster route to El Centro city, the “Impossible Railroad” through this part of the desert was completed and open for use in 1919.
And although it became possible, the 140-mile-long railroad wasn’t easy to build, as it has 17 tunnels and 14 major trestles, with Goat Canyon the mightiest, taking 12 years to build.
Sadly this railroad was discontinued for use and the very last passenger train to travel the railroad left San Diego in January 1951.
The railroad continued to ferry freight through the Carrizo Gorge until September 1976.
Everything else is just history…
