52 Hike Challenge 2016 Adventure Series
Carrizo Gorge at the southern edge of Anza-Borrego Desert
State Park is a spectacular chasm and home to the Goat Canyon railroad trestle.
Two hundred feet tall and 750 feet long, it's the tallest curved wooden trestle
ever built.
The construction of the San Diego & Arizona Eastern
Railroad began during World War I in the steep-walled Carrizo Gorge near the
town of Jacumba. Many people were convinced at the time that it couldn't be
done, but John D. Spreckels didn't rest until the "impossible track"
was completed in November, 1919, at a cost of $18 million. The Goat Canyon
trestle was built in 1932 after an earthquake collapsed one of the tunnels.
Despite damage to the lines from heavy rainstorms,
landslides, fires, and vandalism the line stayed in operation for over 50
years. In 1976 hurricane Kathleen caused widespread flooding and damage in this
area. Three trestles belonging to the San Diego and Arizona Eastern Railway
were destroyed, and five others were damaged. At more than 50 other locations,
tracks were buried by mudslides or had the ground under them washed away. After
assessing the damage from Kathleen, the Southern Pacific Transportation Company
decided in 1977 to abandon most of the SD&AE railway, but in 1978 the
Interstate Commerce Commission disallowed this plan and the railway was
restored.
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