Blyn, Wash. – The popular and picturesque Railroad Bridge truss at the Dungeness River Nature Center is deteriorating and must be replaced in the near future.
That’s the word from Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe officials, who announced on Friday that the 100-year-old wooden truss will be rebuilt using steel to ensure the bridge remains safe and open to the public for generations.
The Tribe said in a news release that replacing the wooden Howe Truss with a steel replica is the only cost-effective option that still preserves the bridge’s character, while also improving safety on this much-used section of the Olympic Discovery Trail.
The Tribe took ownership of the bridge and the 75-acre park in 1993. More recently, the Tribe replaced nearly 800 feet of the bridge’s west side trestle after flood waters in 2015 damaged the bridge. In 2022 the east section was improved to compliment the upgraded Dungeness River Nature Center.
The statement said the Tribe “looks forward to working with community partners on this important project and will share more details on project timing and our capital funding campaign as they become available.”