Whitefish River Bridge - 1919 - Whitefish, MT - Bridge Date Stones and Plaques on Waymarking.com

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Whitefish River Bridge - 1919 - Whitefish, MT

in Bridge Date Stones and Plaques

Posted by:  T0SHEA

11U E 696030 N 5365716

This is a 95 year old girder & trestle bridge at the west end of the Burlington Northern yards in Whitefish.

This bridge is not a quarter mile from the mouth of the Whitefish River as it leaves Whitefish Lake, over which it passes on its way west from Whitefish. It's a steel girder bridge supported by a couple of concrete piers and two steel trestles on concrete footings in the river. On the eastern footing the date, 1919, is stamped in the concrete face just below the rail bed.

This bridge was built by the Great Northern Railroad in 1919. Given that the Great Northern arrived in Whitefish in 1904, at which time it was made a divisional point, this bridge must be the second to be built over the river. The first was most likely a wooden trestle bridge.

This bridge became a Burlington Northern bridge when The Great Northern became the Burlington Northern on March 2, 1970, with the merger of four railroads, the Great Northern Railway, Northern Pacific Railway, Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway and the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad.

One may walk under this bridge on the Whitefish Bike & Pedestrian Trail, which passes through much of central Whitefish and is accessible from many access points throughout the city. When under the south edge of bridge one need only look up to see the date stamp above and to the east.