The Great Northern's Bridge to Nowhere
A spectacular fire tears through the Moses Coulee trestle, halting traffic and forcing a massive rebuilding effort in the Washington wilderness.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The Moses Coulee bridge on the Great Northern railroad, six miles east of Rock Island, was destroyed by fire last night. When discovered, all the trestle on the east approach to the bridge was enveloped in flames. Section men from Watson Creek and Rock Island were sent down but were unable to stay the progress of the flames. About 100 feet of the structure collapsed and was entirely destroyed. The bridge was 854 feet long and 135 feet high. It comprised four truss spans resting on wooden towers seven decks high. The bridge was on a curve in the center of a big loop crossing the coulee, with long and high trestle approaches on each side. There is over 500,000 feet of lumber in it. To replace it will take three weeks, during which time the passengers will be transferred.
“When discovered all the trestle on the east approach to the bridge was enveloped in flames.”
Moses Coulee remains a remote and geologically stunning landscape, but in 1893, it represented the volatile, wood-and-iron fragility of the rapidly expanding railroad empire. Today, while the Great Northern tracks remain, the wooden trestles have been replaced by more permanent steel and concrete structures that don't vanish in a single night of fire.
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