Joso High Bridge, Railway bridge in Starbuck, US.
Joso High Bridge is a single-track steel railway viaduct over the Snake River in Washington, part of the Union Pacific line from Wallula to Spokane. It has 27 steel lattice towers, four of them standing in the river, and 55 bridge elements: five Warren truss spans over the water and 50 solid-web girders carrying the track on top. The light-grey structure is 1,195 metres long and rises up to 59 metres above the water.
Construction began in 1911 under the Oregon–Washington Railroad and Navigation Company, a Union Pacific subsidiary since 1910. The bridge was completed in 1912, and the line opened in 1914. It was named after the nearby Joso Siding, itself derived from local sheep farmer Leon Jussaud.
The bridge takes its name from the nearby Joso Siding, a rail siding named after a local sheep farmer called Leon Jussaud. The line leaves the Snake River route at Ayers Junction, climbs at 0.6 percent and curves northeast onto the bridge, which keeps the same gradient as it crosses the river.
The bridge is part of an active Union Pacific Railroad line and carries regular train traffic, but pedestrian access across the structure is not permitted. The best views are from nearby roads and pathways that run along the canyon rim.
The river was dammed by the Lower Monumental Power Plant, raising the water so that the bridge now stands up to 59 metres above the surface. From its highest point to the pier foundations in the riverbed the structure measures almost 80 metres.
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