| Bridge Name: | Pit River Bridge |
| Official Name: | Veterans of Foreign Wars Memorial Bridge |
| Carries: | and Union Pacific Railroad (former Southern Pacific line) |
| Crosses: | Shasta Lake |
| Locale: | Shasta County, California |
| Design: | Warren deck truss |
| Spans: | 8 |
| Pierswater: | 7 |
| Mainspan: | 630feet |
| Length: | 3588feet |
| Height: | 500feet |
| Open: | 1942 |
| Coordinates: | 40.7623°N -122.3189°W |
The Pit River Bridge (officially the Veterans of Foreign Wars Memorial Bridge) is a double deck, deck truss, road and rail bridge over Shasta Lake in Shasta County, California. The bridge, carrying Interstate 5 on its upper deck and Union Pacific Railroad on its lower deck, was built in 1942 as part of the construction of the Shasta Dam/Shasta Lake reservoir system.[1] The Pit River Bridge was constructed to replace the Lower Pit River Bridge, as the rising waters of the Shasta Lake reservoir would have put the older bridge underwater.[2] [3] The entire bridge spans 3588feet long on the upper deck and 2754feet on the lower deck.[1] With a height of 500feet above the old Pit River bed, it is structurally the highest double decked bridge in the United States; however, today the bridge sits only about 40feet above the water when Shasta Lake is full.[2] The bridge is Interstate 5's halfway point.
At the time it was built, the highway on the bridge was signed as U.S. Route 99 and the rail line was owned by Southern Pacific. The Coast Starlight, the passenger train line operated by Amtrak that runs between Los Angeles and Seattle, also uses the bridge.[1]
The bridge is officially known as the Veterans of Foreign Wars Memorial Bridge, to honor military veterans from California who have fought in foreign wars.[4]
The Pit River Bridge was the subject of the 1954 Pulitzer Prize for Photography winner entitled "Rescue on Pit River Bridge", taken by Virginia Schau.[5]