American River Bridges: Sacramento Northern Railroad Bridge

Just 150 meters downstream from the Western Pacific Railroad Bridge is the Sacramento Northern Railroad (SNRR) Bridge. This iron truss bridge was built at the turn of the last century. It was used by both the SNRR and by the Northern Electric Railroad.

About ten years ago, the track and ballast were removed and this railroad bridge was converted for bicycle use. In fact, the SNRR right-of-way north of the bridge was converted to a bike trail.

The area downstream can become flooded during the winter and cyclists are encouraged to take this bridge into downtown Sacramento rather than Jibboom Street Bridge which may be under water.

Note that the pier foundations are exposed and surrounded with cobbles due the gradual scouring of the river bottom.

American River Bridges: Sacramento Northern Railroad Bridge by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.