Abandoned Railroad Bridge In Florida

[TrailViewMount]

My newest discovery is the abandoned and historic Little Manatee River Railroad Bridge that was built by the Seaboard Air Line Railway somewhere around 1902-1913. It was decommissioned and abandoned around 1986. This is located in Hillsborough County Florida.

Seaboard Air Line Railway was created in the 1880s by the consolidation of the Seaboard and Roanoke Railroad, which dated back to the earliest decades of American railroads, and other lines in the Carolinas into a single system. Eventually, over 100 lines would be incorporated into the SAL.

See many more photos on my website: http://www.trailviewmount.com/

[otg]

Awesome!

[zzOtherlandzz]

Cooool pictures.... The old metal work with rivets and the brick work look really cool. Were you able to cross the the bridge with the big gap in the middle of it?

[wfin2004]

TVM-

Where is this bridge and is it on a Multi use trail? I live very close to the Little Manatee River, in fact I have had my little bass boat upriver until I could not go any further and I do not remember seeing it. Keep up the good work.

[TrailViewMount]

Thank you for seeing otg, Otherland, and wfin. I did go all the way across. Just finished the video from the bridge. Part one. No there is no trail here. You have to hike it through the woods. http://youtu.be/nBgsLqqHgUI

[joeprim]

Now we/you need to let Rail to trails know about it.
Joe

[kjc9640]

Nice find

[TrailViewMount]

Thanks for seeing joeprim and kjc. Everyone can see the photos and info about the bridge on my website with a Google search. http://www.trailviewmount.com

[mild steel]

Very cool. Something about the process of nature working on old manmade stuff just makes it real special. I'm surprised that it hasn't been knocked down and cut up for scrap for building skyscrapers in China and India, steel is way up in price.

[rm -rf]

Old bridges are made up of many small pieces, all hand riveted together. And they were designed to use the minimal amount of metal. You can really see where the tension and compression forces go.



We use this bridge in SE Indiana as a shortcut on some rides. It even has a foot square hole burned through the wood flooring layers, from a campfire.

[TrailViewMount]

Thanks for seeing mild steel and rm-rf. Fantastic bridge in Indiana. Great photos. Does it have a name? And what river does it cross? http://www.trailviewmount.com.

[Doohickie]

Not quite as scenic, but there are one or two of those around here.





The bridge above has since been taken down. Disappointing, since this old rail route is in the rails to trails plan.

[funrover]

Sweet, always fun finding these!

[Snydermann]

We had a bridge like this near my home town. They eventually tore it down, I think the fear was it would collapse and wash into the newer bridge just downstream.

[Vinnems]

Amazing.

[TrailViewMount]

Nice shots Doohickie. These old bridges are fantastic. Here is a video from an abandoned bridge in Live Oak Florida. Built around 1931. Also see the abandoned Highway 90 bridge video on my YouTube channel.
http://youtu.be/asDzqmjclsk

[zzOtherlandzz]

Here is a before and sort of after picture of a trestle on the Palatka Lake Butler trail. I rode this section of trail on the mountain bike in May knowing it may be the last time I could ride it before they started construction to pave that section. The second shot was taken in Nov from the road (sr100). Looks like they built the new bridge off site and moved it to the trail. The 3rd picture was a smaller bridge closer to Florahome on the same trail. It was away from the road so could not get an after shot of it. There are several more on the trail.... I'll start a new thread when I find where I put the pictures...

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[TrailViewMount]

Nice shots zzOtherlandzz. So the railroad trestles are still on the trail yes?

[zzOtherlandzz]

Nice shots zzOtherlandzz. So the railroad trestles are still on the trail yes?

The trestles pictured are gone now that they have started paving that section of trail. There is another bigger trestle on the trail near Palatka, I am hoping that they can save that one. It's in much better shape than the 2 pictured were. (just found this picture from last year)...

ScreenShot082.jpg

I just found out recently that for the past couple of years (and again in Feb of 2012) that there is an ultra marathon ran on the trail.

I really need to con my friends into riding the rest of the trail with me, north of Keystone Heights to Lake Butler before they pave it....

[TrailViewMount]

Since I plan to be in the Palm Coast area soon, I will be riding the Palatka-Lake Butler Trail. I will be starting at the Twin Lakes Park trailhead. I can't wait. Thanks for info Otherland. My website is really getting loaded with photos and info from Florida paved trails: http://www.trailviewmount.com