Eastbridge, Arizona

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Eastbridge was a railroad station on the east bank of the Colorado River in Mohave County, Arizona, near Needles, California. It was built at the site of the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad’s first bridge across the river.

In 1883 a wooden bridge was built from Eastbridge to the California bank across the flood plain of the Mohave Valley. The riverbed had no solid bases and the bridge was about 1,600 feet wide. Construction happened during the Colorado River flood season, starting in May. For three months, crews struggled to drive wooden piles into the riverbed, but the river washed them away. Piles were finally driven into the mid‑river section with a pile driver mounted on Barge No. 3 and held in place by the Mohave II.

When completed in August, the bridge was still vulnerable to floods and was washed out or undermined by spring floods. It had to be replaced in 1884, 1886, and 1888. The railroad then moved its route south along the California bank, to Beal, and then opposite Mellen, where from 1889 to May 1890 they built the Red Rock Bridge, a cantilever bridge built on rock foundations, unlike the previous site.

After the Red Rock Bridge was completed, the section of track from the change point to Powell and to Eastbridge station was abandoned in 1890.