LONGVIEW, Texas — Time has brought a 117-year-old iron railroad bridge over the Sabine River to the end of the line.
BNSF Railway owns the track whose path takes it through Rusk, Harrison and Gregg counties, passing through the industrial area that includes Eastman Chemical Co. The iron truss railroad bridge that spans the Sabine River at the Harrison and Gregg counties line was constructed in 1904, a BNSF spokesman reported.
“The bridges over the Sabine River are part of our heavy bridge program, which addresses the replacement of larger bridges on the BNSF network,” said company spokesman Ben Wilemon. “The new bridges (will) feature modern designs that allow our customers the flexibility to ship heavy axle loads, something which the previous designs from 1904 prevented.”
Little else is known about the bridge’s history, except that it was built by one of the predecessors of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway, which BNSF described as one of its “major predecessors.”
Read the rest of the story with our news partners, the Longview News-Journal.
