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Click on sample for enlarged photo of texture
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One might say that the Trestlewood Story began in August 1902, when the first piles of the Lucin Cutoff's 12-mile-long wooden trestle were driven into the bed of the Great Salt Lake. Just over a year later, in October, 1903, the trestle was completed.
A simple one-year project right? Not really. First, note that the trestle was just a part (albeit the most unique part) of the 103-mile-long Lucin Cutoff. The cut-off was put into service on March 8, 1904, approximately two years after its February, 1902, start of construction.
Even the two year construction completion time is amazing, considering the magnitude of the Lucin Cut-off project. Southern Pacific made this aggressive schedule possible by throwing massive amounts of resources at the project. 3000+ men. 25 pile drivers. 800+ dump rail cars. 80 locomotives. The project was not to be delayed by a shortage of manpower or equipment.
The project had its share of challenges. Driving the 25,000-plus piles was not an easy task: Water in the permanent trestle section varied from 30 to 34 feet in depth and piles had to be driven many feet into the lake bottom in order to insure a stable structure. When "soft spots" were struck a 100-foot pile could often be driven out of sight without striking solid footing. In such places it was necessary to lash two piles together and drive them into the lake in order to make a solid trestle.(Miller,pp.39-40)
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Surprisingly, though, the greatest challenge, contending with the settling of the fill, was not even trestle-related: Here the real work of building the Lucin Cut-Off came in. For a year and nine months that thing kept up...That first sink began a fight the like of which has not been seen in railroad engineering. It became, apparently, the stupendous task of filling up the bottomless pit. Twenty-five hundred men were at it day and night without cessation. Every hour saw at least one great material-train thrust out on the crazy track to pour its tons of rock and gravel into the greedy, yawning hole.(Davis,p.467)
Eventually the 2500 men prevailed. The result was the completed Lucin Cut-off, "one of the most remarkable and courageous engineering accomplishments of the time."(Hofsommer,p.17)
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The Lucin Cut-off was a resounding success. It rendered obsolete the Promontory Line around the north end of the Great Salt Lake (with its famous Golden Spike), which "had developed into the chief bottleneck of the whole transcontinental line."(Miller,p.38) It clearly earned its name of "cut-off."
Despite dire predictions by pre-construction skeptics, the trestle portion of the cut-off performed admirable. In fact, the six-day period that the trestle was out of commission following a May 4, 1956, fire was the first time in its history that it had been out of service.
Which is not to say that the trestle was maintenance-free. Southern Pacific beefed up the trestle with several thousand additional piles throughout its service life. By the 1950s, the trestle contained over 38,000 piles. Many of the original Douglas Fir cap and deck timbers and Redwood deck planks had been replaced by this time, also.
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The beginning of the end of the trestle's life as a trestle came in the 1950s, when Southern Pacific decided to replace the trestle with a solid fill causeway. Construction of this causeway, which ran parallel to the trestle, began in 1955. The new causeway handled its first traffic in July, 1959. SP continued to maintain the trestle as a back-up to the causeway for a few years, but the trestle had seen its last significant traffic by the beginning of the 1960s.
The trestle may have been near the end of its life as a trestle as the 1960s started, but the Trestlewood story had just begun.
The 1960s through the early 1990s brought thirty-plus years of well-deserved rest from the heavy train traffic of the trestle's first 55 years. Nature was not so kind. The wind and the waves accompanying the intermittent fierce storms of the Great Salt Lake began to take their toll on the trestle, which was no longer being maintained as it had been when it was the railroad's only means of crossing the lake. Piece by piece, handrail and deck materials were broken free and blown or washed into the lake. In not too many years, the trestle was no longer fit to be even a back-up means of crossing the lake.
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The trestle was given new life in the 1990s. This is where we came into the picture. In 1998, Birch Creek Millwork teamed up with Cannon Structures in the milling and distribution of Trestlewood II and other quality reclaimed flooring products. Our mission is to provide you with the highest quality products and services in the flooring industry.
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For more information contact us by:
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