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Safe Trestles - The New Trestle
Safe Trestles - The New Trestle
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Safe Trestles - The New Trestle
The New Trestle:
Since mid-19th century, the California coast has offered a North-South passage for people, materials, and goods. Whether in the form of the original rail-road, or later, as a highway, this man-made N-S conduit is periodically interrupted by natural hydrological, cultural, and infrastructural flows reaching westward toward the Pacific Ocean. At certain intersections, the conduit developed a unique typology that allowed the flow of traffic to traverse natural trajectories leaving them relatively undisturbed - the trestle.
Quick to construct and a relatively stable architectural form, wooden or metal trestle bridges were used to allow the RR to traverse dramatic topographic changes leaving the ecosystems beneath relatively intact. Such as was the case at the San Mateo Creek RR crossing where the flow of water and organisms was allowed to continue uninhibited to the Pacific Ocean. The trestles used here have yielded a wonderfully diverse wildlife habitat and an awesome surf spot. The one flow that has been cut off to this site is a safe access for people. To remedy this situation we propose a modification to the trestle infrastructure, a new ecologically sensitive path that offers safe passage for the people to the ocean while keeping the fragile ecosystem intact and the surf spot relatively quiet.
The new trestle maintains the orientation of the RR line. A thickening of the RR conduit with a trestle yields a flexible program space – able to accommodate the crowds that flock to surfing competitions, the cormorants and pelicans drying their wings, the lone artist sketching the land meeting the sea, the crack of dawn bird watchers, and the 4th graders on a field trip to a rare southern California river that is not lined with concrete. The simple A-Frame offers structural stability with ease of construction and maintenance, along with a nod to the historical RR trestle typology. The beach and trestle overlook are accessed by a path that traverses the coastal wetland ecosystem at grades <5% with intermittent ‘surfer shortcut stairs’. The path itself offers a ride as fun to ‘rip-up’ as the waves it leads to – the combination of the occasional shockwave of the passing train and the ever changing quality of light inside the structure with the constant presence of the horizon line as the datum of ascendance throw the trestle structure.
The North-South rail conduit along the California coast must periodically traverse the topographic changes that result from the Westward flow of water to the Pacific Ocean. The Trestle, a quick to construct and relatively stable architectural form was invented to traverse such interruptions without cutting off the natural flows beneath.
The New Trestle offers a safe passage for the flow of people moving westward to enjoy the waves and wildlife that thrive at the confluence of river, land, and sea. The occasional shockwave from a passing train and ever changing quality of light yields a journey as dramatic as the site itself without impacting the flows that allow the site to thrive.
Since mid-19th century, the California coast has offered a North-South passage for people, materials, and goods. Whether in the form of the original rail-road, or later, as a highway, this man-made N-S conduit is periodically interrupted by natural hydrological, cultural, and infrastructural flows reaching westward toward the Pacific Ocean. At certain intersections, the conduit developed a unique typology that allowed the flow of traffic to traverse natural trajectories leaving them relatively undisturbed - the trestle.
Quick to construct and a relatively stable architectural form, wooden or metal trestle bridges were used to allow the RR to traverse dramatic topographic changes leaving the ecosystems beneath relatively intact. Such as was the case at the San Mateo Creek RR crossing where the flow of water and organisms was allowed to continue uninhibited to the Pacific Ocean. The trestles used here have yielded a wonderfully diverse wildlife habitat and an awesome surf spot. The one flow that has been cut off to this site is a safe access for people. To remedy this situation we propose a modification to the trestle infrastructure, a new ecologically sensitive path that offers safe passage for the people to the ocean while keeping the fragile ecosystem intact and the surf spot relatively quiet.
The new trestle maintains the orientation of the RR line. A thickening of the RR conduit with a trestle yields a flexible program space – able to accommodate the crowds that flock to surfing competitions, the cormorants and pelicans drying their wings, the lone artist sketching the land meeting the sea, the crack of dawn bird watchers, and the 4th graders on a field trip to a rare southern California river that is not lined with concrete. The simple A-Frame offers structural stability with ease of construction and maintenance, along with a nod to the historical RR trestle typology. The beach and trestle overlook are accessed by a path that traverses the coastal wetland ecosystem at grades <5% with intermittent ‘surfer shortcut stairs’. The path itself offers a ride as fun to ‘rip-up’ as the waves it leads to – the combination of the occasional shockwave of the passing train and the ever changing quality of light inside the structure with the constant presence of the horizon line as the datum of ascendance throw the trestle structure.
The North-South rail conduit along the California coast must periodically traverse the topographic changes that result from the Westward flow of water to the Pacific Ocean. The Trestle, a quick to construct and relatively stable architectural form was invented to traverse such interruptions without cutting off the natural flows beneath.
The New Trestle offers a safe passage for the flow of people moving westward to enjoy the waves and wildlife that thrive at the confluence of river, land, and sea. The occasional shockwave from a passing train and ever changing quality of light yields a journey as dramatic as the site itself without impacting the flows that allow the site to thrive.
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