The Fruitvale Avenue Railroad Bridge is a vertical lift bridge for trains spanning the Oakland Estuary. The Oakland Estuary is a navigable water way with access to the San Francisco Bay and San Leandro Bays.

The Fruitvale Avenue Railroad bridge has two support towers for the counterweights, machinery rooms, and span. The towers are 185 feet tall with the machinery rooms at the top. Each Tower has a massive counterweight to help lift the bridge. While there are many different designs, all vertical lift bridges are based on this same engineering principle. Although it offers 13 feet of vertical clearance when closed, it is kept at 65' or mid-open and lowered when a train needs to pass over it.


The Fruitvale Avenue Railroad Bridge was completed in 1951 by the United States Army Corp of Engineers. It is owned by the United States Army Corp of Engineers and maintained and operated by the Alameda County Public Works Agency. The prime contractors were Ben C. Gerwick, Southern Pacific, Judson-Pacific, Murphy Construction, and Independent Construction Company. It cost $946,757 to build.


As my pictures show the bridge is no longer in use; the last Red Car must have crossed on the old bridge on January 18, 1941; while the final passenger train of any kind was on April 4, 1954, a BAERA steam excursion.

If anyone can tell me when the last train of ANY KIND crossed over, please leave a message.


All pictures were converted from original color digital images using Photo Shop to give a feel of old-time photos. For a few images in color go to the end of my gallery at https://pbase.com/chrisphotos/cityscapes


Gallery created 9/29/2007.