My wife and I went to Miles City this afternoon and I've always wondered...what is the big bridge that's visible way off in the distance to the north of the interstate about 4 or 5 miles west of Miles City? Looks like a railroad bridge, but is it? If a car bridge, how do you get to it?

(I love old bridges! We really enjoy driving over the Kinsey bridge once in a while.)

There is both an old car bridge and an old railroad bridge just west of Miles City. The railroad bridge is from the old Milwaukee Road rail line. It is furthest west. The car bridge is closer to town and is on Fort Keogh land. You can access the car bridge via Fort Keogh (you may want to inquire about permission to do so). Both the railroad bridge and the car bridge can be accessed from Sheffield Road which is just north of the Miles City airport off of Highway 59.

I'm not sure but I have it in my head that this car bridge was replaced by the Seventh Street/Highway 59 bridge (which itself is on a second iteration) so this bridge must be pretty old.

Here are some photos of the car bridge.



http://www.flickr.com/pho...5003139892



http://www.flickr.com/pho...5003140050



http://www.flickr.com/pho...5003139796

Oh, and the railroad bridge is known as Paragon Bridge. This "montanatom1950" guy on Flickr has some photos of it. Here's a link to one of them. According to him the bridge is also accessed via Fort Keogh (with permission).

http://www.flickr.com/pho...867015861/

We always called the car bridge "The 1902 Bridge". I think the date is on there somewhere. There's some really good fishing around that bridge.

The 1902 bridge was the first bridge across the Yellowstone around here. It wasn't for cars, though, as they weren't much in use. The first bridge at what we now think of the as the Seventh Street bridge over the Yellowstone (even though it isn't actually 7th St. that connects to the bridge) was built around 1912 and replaced with the current Yellowstone bridge in 1957.

Cool! I never knew about that car bridge. Thanks for the info.

Many memories of youthful "activities" around that bridge...

The so called "car bridge" is no longer used by vehicles I'm told. It is us solely for moving livestock across the river. Unsafe for vehicles.

The 1902 bridge as referred to and on maps was called a wagon bridge. There are postcards of the bridge. It is padlocked gated to the public but Ft Keogh vehicles still use it as well as to move livestock. The south end of the bridge was partially damaged by the 1cejam of 1979 and kids or someone set fire to the middle of the wooden planking at some time but the fort has replanked so it is usuable.