Wrangell – St Elias National Park & Preserve

The Gilahina wooden train trestle was built in eight days in January 1911. Copper ore had been discovered in Kennecott and a railway was quickly built to get the ore to Cordova on the coast. The final copper spike was driven on March 29, 1911.

Originally 890 feet long and 90 feet tall, with a 120 degree arc, the trestle required 1/2 million board feet of timber. The original trestle was burned during a wildfire in 1915. The bridge was rebuilt the same summer. It is the 1915 trestle which still stands today.

The McCarthy Road travels the old railroad grade of the Copper River and Northwestern Railway. The CR&NWR, affectionately known to Alaskans as the Can’t Run & Never Will, ran its last train on November 11, 1938.