Construction crews from the Missouri Valley Bridge & Iron Company arrived at Lyons Ferry in 1910. A quarter mile below the mouth of the Palouse, they began the task of bridging the Snake River with one of the longest and highest railway bridges in the world. The bridge was ordered by the North Coast Railroad. That firm was absorbed by the O.W.R. & N. shortly after the project commenced. The structure was completed September 14, 1914.

The new bridge cut 52 miles and four and a half hours off the old Spokane to Portland route, perhaps justifying the railroad’s $2,000,000 investment. The toll in human life was harder to justify. Many workers succumbed to caisson disease as they dug sixty five feet into the river bottom to provide a solid footing for the piers. Others fell from the steel that carries the rails 285 feet above the water. Their bodies were often swept far downstream where they would be recovered days or weeks afterwards.

The 3920 foot long bridge, supported by two dozen steel towers, still carries the trains of the Union Pacific Railroad across the Snake and is the longest and highest bridge on that company’s system. The High Line Bridge is sometimes referred to as the Joso Bridge after Leon Jussaud who operated a sheep camp near its north end at the time of construction.