This historic metal-truss double-deck swing bridge spans the Sacramento River in front of you, linking Sacramento with Yolo County to the west. Imagine this crossing as a sequence of inventions: the first railroad bridge here was built by the California Pacific Railroad Company, and the first train crossed from Yolo County to Sacramento on January 29, 1870. After the Central Pacific Railroad purchased California Pacific in 1876, they replaced things upstream with a wooden Howe truss swing bridge in 1878.
That swing span used a trestle tower with stabilizing cables — a design first seen on the 1869 Mossdale bridge — and it carried both wagon and rail traffic on a single deck and single track, with flagmen at each end to keep traffic moving. Later, a joint project begun in 1893 by the Southern Pacific Railroad and the governments of Sacramento County and Yolo County brought you the third wooden railroad bridge, completed in 1895: the first double-deck Howe truss, with wagons on top and trains underneath, its swing span again featuring that trestle tower with stabilizing cables. Notice the river and the swing span still marking this crossing toward Yolo County.