Eastbridge was an Atlantic and Pacific Railroad station on the Arizona bank of the Colorado River, approximately three miles southeast of Needles, California. It marked the eastern end of the first railroad bridge across the Colorado River in the Needles area.
The Atlantic and Pacific reached the river from northern Arizona in 1883, while the Southern Pacific completed its line eastward from Mojave to Needles. Connecting the two systems required a bridge across the broad floodplain of the Colorado. The chosen crossing was more than 1,600 feet wide and offered no firm rock foundation on either bank.
Construction began during the river’s spring rise. Crews repeatedly attempted to drive wooden piles into the shifting riverbed, only to have the current dislodge their work. In the deeper channel, a pile driver mounted on Barge No. 3 was maneuvered and held in place by the steamboat Mohave II. The crossing was completed in August 1883, establishing a continuous railroad route across the Colorado.
Its location soon proved unsuitable. Floodwater repeatedly damaged or undermined the wooden pile structure, requiring major reconstruction after the floods of 1884, 1886, and 1888. Rather than continue repairing the vulnerable crossing, the railroad constructed a new alignment southward along the California bank through Beal to Mellen.
At Mellen, opposite present-day Topock, engineers could anchor a bridge to rock. The resulting steel cantilever structure, commonly called the Red Rock Bridge, was completed in 1890. Once trains began using the new crossing, the former alignment through Powell and Eastbridge was abandoned, and the old wooden bridge was removed. Eastbridge subsequently disappeared from railroad timetables and maps.
https://mojavedesert.net/railroads/atlantic-and-pacific/
https://digital-desert.com/colorado-river/
https://mojavedesert.net/steamboats/colorado-steamboats.html
https://mojavedesert.net/railroads/southern-pacific-railroad/
https://digital-desert.com/mojave-ca/
https://digital-desert.com/needles-ca/
References
- Richard E. Lingenfelter, Steamboats on the Colorado River, 1852–1916 (University of Arizona Press, 1978).
- Huntington Library: Old A. & P. pile bridge near Needles.
- Arizona Memory Project: Atlantic & Pacific Railroad route and land-grant maps.
- David Rumsey Map Collection: Atlantic & Pacific Railroad, Fifth Operating Division.
- National Park Service: Old Trails Bridge at Topock