Vance Creek Bridge
Vance Creek Bridge
Shelton, Washington, United States
347 feet high / 106 meters high
422 foot span / 129 meter span
1929
The second highest railway arch bridge ever built in the United States, the Vance Creek arch bridge soars 347 feet (106 mtrs) above a thick forest valley in Washington State’s Olympic peninsula. Originally constructed in 1929 by the Simpson Logging Company, the bridge was eventually abandoned and has neither tracks nor a roadway on top of it. Located several miles north on the same rail line and still in use as a road bridge since 1950 is the High Steel bridge over the South Fork of the Skokomish river and the highest arch bridge ever built for a U.S. rail line at 365 feet (111 mtrs). Both bridges were built by the American Bridge Company.
Image by Eric Sakowski / HighestBridges.com
Image by Eric Sakowski / HighestBridges.com
Image by Eric Sakowski / HighestBridges.com
Image by Eric Sakowski / HighestBridges.com
Image by Eric Sakowski / HighestBridges.com
Vance Creek Bridge and logging train - Art Forde / John Labbe Collection.
Image by Eric Sakowski / HighestBridges.com
Kerry Skarbakka is a photographer who captures himself at the moment an accident or disaster has begun to overtake him as seen here on the Vance Creek bridge. The scenes look real even though they are all set up. You can see several other images of Kerry falling off ladders and down stairs at his website: