After reaching their goals, and becoming profitable, the western railroads soon made major improvements to their infrastructure. On the western slopes of Snoqualmie Pass the Milwaukee Road crossed six water courses.  The forests provided ample supplies of heavy timber and wooden trestles such as we see here were the result.

Wooden trestles required a lot of maintenance, and were subject to forest fires.  Some were filled like Humpback Creek.  The planking shields the structure from damage when dumping fill.  A hefty culvert allows passage of the creek to this day. The other five wooden trestles were replaced by steel structures, assembled within the confines of the wooden trestles.  Traffic was only minimally disrupted. Somewhere in my “stuff” I have a picture of that work in progress that I will share, someday.

Many years later the westbound Olympian Hiawatha is seen at the same location, about to enter a snow shed, also made out of 12 x 12 timbers.  The locomotive, (a motor in railroad lingo) is one of 5 Bi-polars built by General Electric.  They were unique in that the axles were the armature, no gears.  Other than the clickety-clack of jointed-rail, they were extremely quiet. While traversing the warehouse district of Seattle, with many street  crossings, the engineers were required to keep the bell clanging in addition to using the whistle.

Credits: Wooden trestle: Unk; westbound Olympian: Milwaukee Road photo