Lyle, Washington.

At the confluence of the Columbia and Klickitat Rivers near Lyle, Washington, there are two bridges, one for the railroad to cross the Klickitat River and one that carries State Route 14 over the river. The two spans are known by the locals as the Twin Bridges.

The closest bridge in the image above, the railroad bridge, was completed in 1908 for the Spokane, Portland, and Seattle Railway. The concrete arch measures 160 feet (49 m), and the bridge deck is about 200 feet (61 m) long.

The longer of the two bridges is known as the Klickitat River Bridge and was built in 1933 to allow traffic to continue across the river on SR 14, the Lewis and Clark Highway. The length of this bridge deck spans some 265 feet (81 m).

According to my research, there is another bridge known as the Klickitat River Bridge. If you are looking for more information on the bridge at Lyle, your Internet search may lead you to some confusion as to the location, and the construction details of the bridges obviously won’t match. That bridge is about 17 miles (27 m) upriver from the confluence at the Columbia River. That bridge is smaller and was constructed in 1954.

This image was captured from the Rowena Crest Viewpoint on the Oregon side of the Columbia River using my Nikon D500 with Tamron 13-300 mm lens at the 300 mm setting. Click on the image above to view it in 2K HD on my Flickr site.

John Steiner