Comments on: Impossible Railroad

By: Larry

Larry — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 22:01:41 +0000

I saw a great segment on Huell Howser’s “California Gold” TV series. They walked across this bridge in the segment.

link:
http://www.calgold.com/calgold/Default.asp?Series=1000&Show=102

another link:
http://www.sandiegohistory.org/journal/2000-2/railroad.htm

By: Alex

Alex — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 23:19:34 +0000

That’s a brilliant idea russ! Can we come too?

By: russ

russ — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 11:28:38 +0000

i’ve just decided: if I ever win the lottery, I’m going to try visit every location on GS. i guess i should start buying tickets first…

By: Maff

Maff — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 13:06:08 +0000

“I like the way this is written in American. Some rough translations for English speakers:
“180 feet” around 60m”

think you’ll find most people in England use feet and inches over cm and metres, and with the ruling the other week that we don’t have to move to the metric system anymore so we can keep pints, stones, lb’s, feet, inches etc the imperial system will be around for quite some time!

By: Drum Dude

Drum Dude — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 09:33:41 +0000

Hate to say this but most of us ‘older’ english still use feet and inches (although we have now given up using rods, poles and perches as units of measure)!!!

By: The Bobs

The Bobs — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 23:53:12 +0000

This railroad is in no way connected to Los Angeles. It was intended to provide a more direct route east.

Here is a better link on the history of this bridge:

Carrizo Railway

By: Alex

Alex — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 12:11:14 +0000

@Rollo: Lol! It was deliberate I assure you

* “Railroad” is locally correct
* “Trestle” as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary is a “framework consisting of a horizontal beam supported by two pairs of sloping legs” - like a trestle table!
* I always try to use the correct units of measurement when talking about countries that don’t use the Metric System - and I did link them to their conversion into metres.

Finally, yes Longest blah in the World might well mean the USA, but the title is so specific (it must be wooden as well as curved), that this probably does classify it as longest, or tallest in whatever category they wish to make up for it to fit into.

By: Rollo

Rollo — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 11:44:16 +0000

I like the way this is written in American. Some rough translations for English speakers:

“Railroad” means railway
“Trestle” not sure - viaduct?
“600 feet” roughly 200m
“180 feet” around 60m
and “Longest [...] in the world” obviously means “longest [...] in the USA”

By: Timothy

Timothy — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 10:03:16 +0000

@Alex: Although there is a split going to LA, the split you linked to only goes as far as split mountain which appears to be a mine of some sort.

By: Alex

Alex — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 22:04:03 +0000

Yes koen, I’ve followed the rails further east and it seems to split northward and eastward - the northern line looping back to LA, and the eastern track heading into arizona. So we’re both right