Truckee River Railroad Platform - August 2019

Truckee River Railroad Platform - dedicated August 2019

   Does any of this structure to the left look familiar?  It certainly did to many visitors, but until I read through the posted sign at the newly completed Truckee River Railroad Platform, I had to do a double take.  I grew up in Oakland, California and spent many a day commuting across the San Francisco - Oakland Bay Bridge.  Little did I know that some 40 years later, 3 of the uprights would appear in our very own Truckee. 
   What, you ask, does all this have to do with the Truckee-Donner Historical Society?

   Remember, this is the Sesquicentennial celebration of the 1869 completion of the Transcontinental Railroad through Truckee.  While parties would have liked to have “extended” the connection from the then Oakland railroad terminus to San Francisco, technology was not yet developed enough to construct a bridge across the San Francisco Bay to connect Oakland with San Francisco. That bridge did not get constructed until 1936. 
   Locally owned blacksmith, Mountain Forge company, won an award to receive 8 tons of salvaged steel from the original 1936 eastern bridge span.  That steel today stands at the Truckee River Railroad Platform in Regional Park.  It has  been “reunited with the railroad to live on as a community gathering place.”  Pretty cool stuff.  Photos of the installation.  Unless otherwise noted, photos are courtesy of Ed Czerwinski.
   For further information about the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and the history about trying to connect the transcontinental railroad with San Francisco, please visit this link.
Webmaster, Heidi Sproat 8.28.2019