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12-09-2006, 11:36 AM
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K-25 Railroad Bridge History
K-25/POPLAR CREEK RAILROAD BRIDGE HISTORY
I have long been curious about the railroad spur into the K-25 Plant. This spur runs from Blair into and through the K-25 plant. There is a single track 150 foot steel cross truss bridge located just on the north side of the plant where it crosses Poplar Creek. [Photo’s attached below] I had heard that this bridge was relocated to this location in support of the Manhattan Project that developed the first atomic bomb.  One doesn’t normally hear about bridge relocation and this just fueled my curiosity.I initiated some inquiries on the history of this bridge with plant historical personnel and the Smoky Mountain Railroad Museum (SARM). My intention was to just get an overview of its history. The bridge does have a builder’s plate identifying the year of construction as 1913. That date is four decades older than the spur into the plant. So there’s the mystery, just where did this structure carry out its job of holding up trains while acrossing a deep something? During WWII and the initiation of the Manhattan Project, the construction of the plant became a national priority. The government needed a rail spur into the construction site and therefore procured many of the necessary materials from the railroads. It seems that in most cases the railroads provided mostly stockpiled materials that also included this bridge. Just to give you an idea of some of what was provided, recent rail spur repairs has replaced some rail sections that were made in the 1890’s! I guess as long as the rail met load/strength criteria age must not have been a factor. So, where did the bridge come from? The best available information I found was that it came from the Louisville and Nashville RR. The L&N had a line between Harriman and Oliver Springs, TN that was abandoned in 1941 due to the lack of business. Some of the old right of way can still be found where it crosses the Little Emory River and swings around and up into the Sugar Grove Valley area going by the community of Dyllis and on into Oliver Springs. In fact there are still a pair of bridge abutments at the mouth Little Emory where it enters the Emory River. It seems that this bridge was from that abandoned spur and it’s possible that its old location was at the mouth of the Little Emory. An observation by a co-worker of mine at this location indicated that the old span seems to correspond to the length of this bridge. Records indicate that this bridge was removed from the abandoned spur as Watts Bar Reservoir was filled which flooded back into this area. I don’t have details on how the bridge was relocated but in all, the plant spur required eight bridges with the Poplar Creek span being the longest. The first train consisted of several loaded ballast cars that entered the plant on September 15, 1943. This spur is still very much in use by both the Secret City excursion train operated by SARM and with the transport of waste materials as part of the K-25 cleanup effort. So next time you are traveling Blair Road or riding the train this should give you a bit more insight of this spurs history. And who knows, if only L&N had held out for just two more years... 
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Bruce (McToots) McElhoe KAMRI President  and Web Site Moderator Last edited by McToots : 12-09-2006 at 11:43 AM. Reason: typo's 
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