Bridges, Tunnels, and Oops

 Fairview, MT  - same

Vaughn told me about a bridge and tunnel that he wanted to explore in Fairview, MT. A small town on the border with North Dakota. My walking ability is greatly diminished and I do not like heights so Vaughn walked the bridge while I waited in the car and watched people. There were many people floating the Yellowstone and the parking lot for the bridge is a great place to get off the river. 

 Views from the bridge

(Can you see Vaughn on the bridge in the above picture?)

This bridge is known as the Fairview Lift Bridge or the Great Northern Railway Bridge and was built in 1913 across the Yellowstone River.  It was built as a lift bridge to accomodate steamboat traffic. But construction took so long, once it was completed, steamboats were on their way out.

You can barely see the boat on the water but if you enlarge the picture really a lot, those little black dots turn into tube floaters.

The only time the 'lift' span on the Fairview Bridge over the Yellowstone River was raised was in 1914, shortly after it was constructed as part of an ambitious plan by the Great Northern Railroad for its never-completed Montana Eastern Railway. 

It has been said that the body of a lynched railworker and criminal, J. C. Collins, is inside one of the concrete abutments of the bridge.  Nobody knows for sure if fact or fiction.

At the east end of the bridge is the Cartwright Tunnel which is the only completed railroad tunnel in North Dakota. The tunnel is 1,456 feet long and most of the digging was done by hand. It becomes completely dark in the center near where it curves to the other side and that is where the Oops happened.

 

Vaughn wasn't as prepared as he should have been for the tunnel. It was really dark and the only light he had was his phone flashlight. He had it pointed downward so he could see where to walk and did not realize that the tunnel curved. He ran right into a wooden plank and cut his head open.

When he finally got back to the car, he was dripping blood everywhere. Head wounds really do bleed a lot. But he was a trooper and refused to go to Urgent Care. I thought he needed stitches but being male, he said no way. So he cleaned up the best he could and held a kleenex to his head as we went on to more adventures. 

Next up the Forts and another Oops.