[1][8][10][11] Goat Canyon Trestle was built in 1933 as part of the San Diego and Arizona Eastern Railway, after one of the many tunnels through the Carrizo Gorge collapsed.

[12] It ran through Baja California and eastern San Diego County before ending in Imperial Valley.

[13] Under the direction of John D. Spreckels, construction of the San Diego and Arizona Eastern Railroad began in 1907.

[14][15] Engineers called the route "impossible" as it crossed the Colorado Desert and through the Jacumba Mountains.

[2] Before the construction of the railroad, the only rail connection to San Diego was from the north, via Los Angeles, which was only completed in the late 19th century.

[15][19] The San Diego and Arizona Railway experienced a series of difficulties, including collapsed tunnels and rock slides, which led to the periodic closure of the railroad.

[6] Redwood timber,[1] the same type used for railroad ties along the rest of the route,[25] was utilized because Carrizo Gorge's considerable temperature fluctuations could have led to metal fatigue in a steel bridge.

[27] After World War II, the San Diego and Arizona Eastern Railway was impacted by increased automobile travel spurred by state investment in a highway system which could operate at a loss.

[31] In 1999, Huell Howser visited the trestle and filmed an episode about it for the public television series California's Gold.

[44] The San Diego Model Railroad Museum hosts a HO scale replica of the trestle.