Los Angeles County, California Bridges: Patata Street Metro Railroad Bridge across the Los Angeles River

August 1999 (33.9543 Degrees, -118.1723 Degrees) Los Angeles River Bridges

South of downtown, the Los Angeles River travels through an industrial area with lots of railroad bridges. Because the river provides an unimpeded right-of-right, transmission lines follow the river for most of its length. It may seem strange to concentrate our attention on a concrete channel, however the Los Angeles River plays as large a role in contemporary culture and politics as the Thames or the Tiber. Hundreds of movies feature the river and its the subject of a continuing battle between environmentalists, city planners. developers, etc.

In the photo above, we are looking north (upstream) at today's bridge as well as the Clara Street, Florence Avenue, and Gage Avenue Bridges that we visited yesterday (and the Randolph Railroad Bridge). The Patata Street (or South Gate) Railroad Bridge carries the Metro Rail across the Los Angeles River. It consists of through plate girder end spans and Warren truss middle spans. It carries a single set of tracks and enough extra room for intrepid pedestrians.

Los Angeles County, California Bridges: Patata Street Metro Railroad Bridge across the Los Angeles River by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.