"COTTAGE GROVE, Ore. -- The last covered railroad bridge west of the Mississippi River is coming down after 85 years.Cottage Grove city officials have received an OK from the State of Oregon to tear down the Chambers Bridge.</blockquote"
KVAL's news report on the bridge.
The Chambers Bridge was built in 1925 by The Oregon, Pacific and Eastern Railroad as a logging spur to bring logs to the J.H. Chambers Mill (some accounts call it the Frank Chambers Mill). This hand hewn Howe truss bridge is 78 feet long and is especially tall to accommodate the steam engines that pulled the logging trains that once crossed over the Coast Fork of the Willamette River at this spot. The timbers were hand hewn because timbers cut using a saw blade rather than an adze or ax allowed moisture to penetrate the wood more rapidly. In 1943 the mill burned and the bridge was abandoned at that time.
The Chambers Railroad Bridge is the only remaining covered railroad bridge in Oregon. In fact it is the only to be found on the West Coast. Of the eight remaining railroad bridges that are known to exist the other seven are in the New England states.
Easy parking can be found a few feet west of the given coordinates.