Destruction and Renewal, Part 2
When Sylvester Marsh began construction on his railway in 1866, the first obstacle on his chosen route was the Ammonoosuc River. The Ammonoosuc is a major waterway in northern New Hampshire, flowing from the Lakes of the Clouds just below the summit of Mount Washington all the way out to the Connecticut River. It also runs just west of the Base Station, and for Marsh’s train to have any chance at all of reaching the summit, it first had to cross the river.
It appears that Marsh had no idea what a proper railroad trestle looked like, because the one he designed and built looked more like the squared off post and beam, mortice and tenon framework of a barn. It did the trick, however, until it was later rebuilt in a more typical fashion with splayed legs.
The wooden bridge survived until October 29, 2017, when a severe late season storm caused the river to swell beyond its banks and flood out much of the Base Station area. It also brought down a tremendous amount of timber and other debris from up mountain, and when that debris collided with the trestle, a large portion of it collapsed, effectively closing down the railway for the 2017 season a few weeks early.
Over that winter and early spring, we went to work and designed and installed a new steel bridge (above, awaiting new rail) and we are pretty sure that it’s going to take a much larger storm to knock this one down. Once again, we were ready to open on time the following spring.
Beautiful fall colors greet MW9 as it crosses the new Ammonoosuc River bridge