This bridge is a very rare remaining example of a railroad Whipple
truss bridge. The railroads apparently built quite a few Whipple
truss bridges, but today very few remain, likely replaced by the
early 20th century massive truss bridges that remain on so many
rail lines today. The bridge likely dates to the late 1800s. The
bridge was bought and relocated here in 1915-1916. The Nashville
Bridge Company re-erected the bridge over Big South Fork for Oneida
and Western. The original location and date of this bridge remains
unknown. the Oneida and Western line was about 40 miles and it was
built over 15 years. The line featured a passenger train service
until July 1953 when it lost the contract to carry Jamestown's
mail. The entire line was abandoned in 1954. A number of other
smaller bridges, including a five panel Pratt through truss, were
demolished at that time. The bridge remained unused until later,
the National Park, and by the 1990s had placed a wooden deck on it
and allowed horses and pedestrians to use it. This bridge is
located in a rocky area, and although the piers are concrete, one
end of the bridge actually sits on the natural rock rather than a
constructed abutment. The bridge has thirteen panels.
THE RAILROAD
The Oneida and Western Railroad was chartered by accident by the
Stearns Coal and Lumber Company. The HAGEMEYER brothers were
operating a mill called the Tennessee Stave and Lumber Company in
Glenmary when the Big Survey was opened. The company sought to
build a railroad from Glenmary or Elgin to Jamestown, to be called
the Jamestown Railroad. The initial construction was started
without benefit of legal charter. The Stearns Coal and Lumber
Company took the company to court, misnaming the railroad the
"Oneida and Western Railroad." The Supreme Court of Tennessee
agreed with SC&LC, except that they made an interesting legal
observation. The O&W had no charter and did not legally exist,
but the lawsuit against an Oneida and Western Railroad, made it a
corporate body and did, therefore exist. On August 5, 1913 the
owners of the Jamestown Railroad amended their freshly granted
charter to change the name of the railroad to the Oneida and
Western. The original owners were O. H. ANDERSON, J. T. ANDERSON,
HALL HAGEMEYER, BARTLETT HAGEMEYER and W. C. ANDERSON. The actual
construction was begun in November 1913 at Oneida and took two
years to reach the Big South Fork of the Cumberland River, 10.2
miles away. Bridge Number 6 was constructed there. The route
followed Pine Creek down to the Big South Fork. When it crossed the
river it found and followed up White Oak Creek to East Jamestown.
It took 8 years to build the 30 mile railroad over some of the
roughest terrain that the Cumberland Plateau had to offer. The
railroad was extended the final seven miles into Jamestown in 1930.
The Oneida and Western carried a variety of merchandise: Freight,
mail, passengers, logs, lumber coal, cattle, hogs, sheep and
turkeys by carload. 
In
addition to carrying the mail and general freight, passengers were
able to travel much more quickly than by road on the train between
Jamestown and Oneida. At one time, as many as six daily round trips
were made by the O & W trains. The section
crews used lever cars in the early years of the railroad but later
had gasoline-powered motor cars. Railroad officials used
automobiles outfitted with railroad wheels to make inspection tours
of the line. An A-model Ford so equipped figures in the most
frequently recounted O&W anecdote. It seems that high water
washed out a trestle and left the track sagging. The officials were
afraid to ride across and tried to let the car go over the trestle
in low gear without a driver. The car shot into high, zipped across
the trestle past the man who was supposed to catch it, and
continued driverless into Oneida, where it crashed into a boxcar."
Old timers still relish telling this story on the big shots.
Fortunately, no one was walking the track at that time, or the
story might not seem so funny today. "Another unusual piece of
rolling stock was the "mail bus". When passenger service was
discontinued in the twenties, the passenger coach had been sold. It
was replaced by a Chevrolet truck equipped with railroad wheels.
This vehicle carried the mail and the small number of passengers
who still used the railroad. Later, the Chevrolet truck was
replaced by the M-4, a gasoline-powered car similar to a streetcar
in appearance. A motorman and a conductor operated both of these
vehicles." The worst derailment on the O & W occurred on the Big
South Fork Bridge when several cars came uncoupled from the
locomotive and their emergency brakes failed to take hold. The cars
and caboose went into the river, but the brakeman and conductor
were able to jump to safety. In the early 1940s the
railroads fortunes seemed to be improving when construction
of a TVA dam on Wolf Creek was announced. Crown-Healy, a Chicago
construction firm, bought the railroad with a view toward
transporting construction materials to the construction site of the
dam. However, the Wolf Creek project was suspended during World War
II, and Crown-Healy lost out when new bids were taken in 1946.
Abandonment of the O & W was first proposed at that time, but the
Jewell Ridge Coal Company bought it intending to further develop
the coal resources along the roadbed. Dwindling business and
mounting operation losses forced another application for
abandonment in 1953 before the Jewell Ridge Company plans
could be implemented. Local citizens from all walks of life opposed
abandonment of the O & W and employees tried to fight the loss of
their jobs in the courts. Although construction of paved highways
and bridges beginning in the 1930s did allow trucks to compete for
the railroads freight business, and although business
conditions of the 1930s reduced the overall volume of freight to be
handled, railroad workers tend to blame poor management under
receivership rather than external business conditions for the
railroads demise. The railroad was abandoned and the tracks
were removed in 1954. The company records were relocated to the
Jewell Ridge headquarters where they were destroyed. Only the
O&W office building remains in Oneida and the O&W depot
remains in Jamestown. The Oneida and Western owned and operated 12
locomotives, only one was built new for the railroad, Number 20.
Number 20 was a Consolidation (2-8-0) built in June 1916. It
weighed 127,700 pounds and was purchased by the O&W in 1916.
The locomotive was operated without mishap until 1926 when it was
sent back for repair. The locomotive was sold via the Birmingham
Rail and Locomotive Company when the O&W declared bankruptcy in 1937. The Oneida and Western tracks were taken up in 1957. When the
Big South Fork of the Cumberland National Wilderness was formed the
US Corps of Engineers was asked to determine if the railroad could
be rebuilt on the existing roadbed. The answer was no and the
roadbed became the 0 & W road after right of ways were sold.
