On a temporary assignment in the US, I just drove north of San Francisco and almost lost control of the car when I spotted a severely decayed drawbridge and remains of an old railroad trestle from the highway. Somewhere in me, a bell rang that I've seen this before. An yes - this is the trestle known from the Dirty Harry movie where Harry is standing on the tracks and is jumping down on the roof of the hijacked school bus. This particular clip can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDiF5wRMcSU

A little investigation gives that this is actually remains of the former grand Northwestern Pacific rail network. By 1971 when Dirty Harry was recorded, the Tiburon branch was gone and the service down to Sausalito had just been shut down and it is a fair guess that the line south of San Rafael was never used after that. The actual crossing seen in the Dirty Harry movie was removed quite recently after being considered an obstacle to the road traffic.

Wooden trestles are spectacular and this one is surely not an exception. Given that the NWP tracks south of San Rafael have been disused since 1971 and most of the tracks are gone, it is somewhat puzzling that this particular section has not been demolished. Tracks are cut in both ends and the entire installation is so decayed it must be a matter of years before it starts to fall into pieces.

Anyway - a spectacular landmark. Sad to see that great remains of the past perish so quickly...
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