The weekly southbound Alaska Railroad Winter Aurora with GP40-2 3001 (built 1976) crosses Riley Creek Bridge at Denali Park, Alaska - February 15, 1997. From the NPS website: "The Riley Creek Bridge, manufactured in Pennsylvania and shipped north on 24 rail cars loaded with 600 tons of steel via the Panama Canal, consisted of seven steel towers decked with 30-foot and 60-foot steel plate girders. When finished, the creek crossing would measure 900 feet on length. "In the first week of January 1922, despite blizzards, sub-zero cold, and limited daylight hours , workers installed the first steel "bent." Less than a month later, a steam crane crossed the bridge from south to north. A few days later, despite a minus -30F wind chill, a celebratory train left Seward for Nenana, arriving on February 5." |
