[1] The incentive for railroad construction was reaching the vast stands of timber south of Bend.
At North Junction, approximately 65 miles (105 km) south of the Columbia River, Hill's Oregon Trunk crossed over to the east bank.
At 126 miles (203 km) both railroads would have had to cross a major tributary of the Deschutes, the Crooked River.
In fact the crew lived two miles north of the bridge in a large construction camp at Opal City.
The bridge was built quickly to facilitate laying the last 25.5 miles (41.0 km) of track to Bend where Jim Hill himself drove the "golden" spike on October 5.