The next bridge in the series dedicated to David Backlin is the Cross Bayou Bridge. This steel structure crosses the Cross Bayou in Caddo Parrish near Shreveport, Louisiana. The bridge features two Warren deck truss spans of 127 feet and a main span, a Waddell through truss span of 100 feet. Originally located over the Arkansas River in Oklahoma, the spans were relocated to this spot in 1926, where it used to serve the Kansas Southern Railways until its abandoment in the 1990s. Since then, it has been sitting vacant, although according to Nathan Holth in his website, talks have been ongoing as to making this crossing a Rails-to-Trails bridge.
The Cross Bayou Bridge is one of two subdivided Kingpost through truss structures left in the United States, the truss bridges are coined the Waddell Truss, named after John Alexander Low Waddell, an American-Canadian civil engineer who was responsible for the construction of over 1000 bridges in ten countries over the course of 50 years, many of them through his bridge building firm based in Kansas City. Waddell patented his own truss design in 1894, which would be implemented on rail lines throughout the United States and even Japan. The one at Cross Bayou and another one at Parkville, Missouri are the last two surviving Waddell trusses in the US, although the Parkville span is now located in a park.
David Backlin photographed this bridge in 2010, whereas talks about a Rail-to-Trail crossing started later and was mentioned in Mr. Holth’s docuemntary in 2019. Whether it has born fruit remains open.
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The Bridgehunter's Chronicles 