In the days of “clickety-clack” railroading Fishplates are what connected rails end-to-end.  A pair protrude from the rail on the flood damaged trestle.  Depending on the weight & size of the rail there were four or six bolt holes.  In this scene it could have been either, but the bolts on the missing rail definitely failed under much duress.

  The introduction of ribbon-rail reduced track maintenance, provided a safer and more reliable track and eliminated the clickety-clack that helped put you to sleep in those Pullman sleepers.  Track maintenance crews, known as Gandy-Dancers, would routinely inspect, and tighten rail-bolts. 

  The scene is storm damage in the upper mid-west earlier this Spring.  The flash-flood lifted the trestle off the pilings, and left it bowed with the stream-flow.  A closer look will show the right-of-way disappearing to the horizon, in line with the exposed pilings.

Credits:   bridge photographer unknown, seen in TRAINS Newswire.  Apparatus from the internet, (also called track jewelry by some…)