PI-39 Commonly Asked Questions About Utah's Great Salt Lake and Ancient Lake Bonneville

Modern rock-fill causeway located
parallel to, and 1,500 feet north of,
the old trestle; view is westward
across the lake toward Lakeside.

When and why was a railroad built across the Great Salt Lake?

Great Salt Lake is divided into two parts by the Southern Pacific Transportation Co. (SPTC) causeway.  That part north of the causeway and west of Promontory Mountains is called the north arm, and that to the south of the causeway is called the south arm.

Bear River Bay, although north of the railroad, is considered part of the south arm of the lake.  The south arm and Bear River Bay are connected by an opening in the railroad causeway about four miles east of Promontory Point.

Original wooden trestle railroad that crossed Great Salt Lake, constructed about 1903. Photo by June Cannon, Cannon Structures, Inc.. A salvage operation for the wood started in 1993; some is used in the lobby of the Department of Natural Resources.

In about 1903, the railroad was constructed across the lake as a wooden-trestle structure.  The open structure of the trestle allowed for the mixing of water between the north and south arms of the lake.  It was built to lessen the distance, degrees of curvature, and time required for trains to travel the previous route around the north end of the lake.

By the early 1950s, maintenance costs had become high, and the structure had become unstable under normal operating speeds.  Construction of a stable, permanent structure across the lake was needed.

By 1953, the SPTC had decided to replace the wooden trestle with a rock-fill causeway to be built parallel to, and about 1,500 feet to the north of, the old trestle.  The structure was completed in 1959 at a cost of roughly $50 million (in 1960 dollars).

In 1993, the Trestlewood Division of Cannon Structures, Inc. began to dismantle and salvage the timbers and planking of the old wooden trestle.  Salvage operations are still active as of 1995.