Submitted by Gary Ostlund
The single-track swing bridge was built by the Northern Pacific RR for entry into Aberdeen, Washington. It has a rather strange footprint; in that it wraps itself around a warehouse building. The bridge is rather difficult to photograph, short of trespassing, or getting wet. I tried to copy the Google Street image from the highway bridge at the bottom of the pix, but no luck. The pic I got from the street at the right margin does not do justice to its design and placement. Thus, the Google earth image.
Opened on October 21, 1898, the Wishkah River Bridge has been in daily use ever since, including a brisk business today hauling import autos to market. The Puget Sound & Pacific Railroad, a short line currently services the Grays Harbor region, connecting with the BNSF. That connection is in Centralia on the busy double-track mainline north to Tacoma and south toward Oregon and California.
The harbor was once served by the Milwaukee and Union Pacific entering the harbor from the south, crossing into Aberdeen on yet another swing bridge, now long gone. The NP was the major player though, with branches from Aberdeen and Hoquiam out to Moclips on the ocean, and to Markham on the south side of the harbor out near Westport, (think beaches, salmon fishing and cranberries).
In the heyday of railroading on the harbor the rails served two pulp and paper mills, numerous large sawmills, a thriving shake and shingle industry and active seaport. In the mid-60s when we lived there, at about supper time all three railroads sent eastward an impressive array of freight.
