For the first twenty miles the Copper River and Northwestern Railway route followed old Eyak trails from the lake to Alaganic. Plenty of gravel was available from all the outwash in the glacial streams and the route was fairly flat so construction was relatively easy and the crews made good progress. The first 49 miles of the line which crossed over the delta of the Copper River contained more than 100 wooden trestles, some of considerable length. The longest was the Gilahina trestle that was wooden, 880 feet long and 90 feet above the river. Built during 1911 it required almost a half a million board feet of lumber. When the Railroad was completed in 1911, a distance of 196 miles, about 15 percent of the track was on bridges or trestles.
These photos came from the archives and collections of the Cordova Historical Society.
