41 original photos, 39 sized approximately 6½x8½", 2 sized 4½x6½". A few with pencil annotations either in the very outer white margin, or on verso of image. Housed in plastic sleeves in a modern three-ring binder.
Most of the bridges depicted were erected before World War I. The photographs were taken by Wade C. Goheen, a switchman for the Northern Pacific, and later the Southern Pacific Railroad. Many of the images include Railroad work crews, laying ties, bridge building, as well as glimpses of Oregon in the early 20th century. Included as well are a TLS from the Northern Pacific, SP&S employees benefit bulletins, and a Union Pacific promotional brochure. [Vancouver, WA: Wade C. Goheen, ca. 1920].
Includes a 1 pp. TLS from W. Showalter, Superintendent Northern Pacific Railway to Wade Goheen dated 1927, w/ original mailing envelope, gray printed soft-covers; 4 pp (unpaginated), self-printed wraps; color folding brochure for Zephyr streamliner (minor soiling). This amazing collection of original images taken by Southern Pacific Switchman, Wade Goheen (1885-1962) encompass a broad range of railroad bridges, with some duplicate images. These photos include a massive Southern Pacific trestle bridge built along a log pond, showing railroad construction trains, cranes, and steam equipment building the bridge as it curves across the image, and log pond below; a temporary timber bridge near Myrtle Creek, Douglas County Oregon just north of Canyonville with a steam traction engine parked below; the Crossing Pass Creek Southern Pacific Railroad Bridge 614I which shows SP Switchmen and other workers maintaining the track with their equipment piled off to the side; Crossing Pass Creek RR Bridge 610A, the last of four crossings of Pass Creek along the Southern Pacific Route showing an early view of Drain, Oregon in the background built in 1906; the Louse Creek Railroad Bridge 483H built for the Southern Pacific showing Mitchell's Store in the background north of Grants Pass, OR on the route to Merlin, and even two stark images of an identified truss railroad bridge with flood debris hanging from the deck, and the center span entirely washed away. Of particular interest are two photos of the Hayden Bridge, built originally in 1882 and erected near Corrine, Utah across the Bear River, however in 1900 it was disassembled and moved to its present location spanning the McKenzie River, Lane County, Oregon. The wrought-iron double-intersection Pratt through truss with Phenix columns was constructed for the Central Pacific, and then owned by the Southern Pacific, but was abandoned in 1987 after Weyerhaeuser closed the rail line. The bridges depicted also include the Calapooia River Railroad Bridge, 683B, built in 1908 by the Oregon Electric Railroad, Calapooia River Railroad Bridge built in 1906 by the Southern Pacific, also called the South Cottage Grove RR Bridge, the Grave Creek Trestle Bridge built in 1903 by the Southern Pacific near Leland, OR over Grave Creek, the Luckiamute Railroad River Bridge which was part of the Valley-Siletz Railroad on the southern fork of the Luckiamute River, the South Yamhill Railroad Truss Bridge 53B built by the Southern Pacific in 1906, the Sardine Creek Bridge 460B built in 1906 for the Southern Pacific near Gold Hill, Jackson County, Oregon, the North and South Umpqua River Bridges built in 1906 for the Southern Pacific, and many others. Wade Goheen emigrated from Canada into Montana while working for the Northern Pacific, and then switched to the Southern Pacific after having moved to Vancouver, WA after marrying Amy Falk (1885-1959), daughter of Carl Henry Falk (1852-1926), an important early family in Clark County, Washington.