The New Trestle

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The New Trestle

Firm

Aleksandr Mergold

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.