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This is a New Mexico state historic marker that briefly describes the railroad that was built
from Alamogordo to Cloudcroft for access to prime lumber. The bulk
of now U.S. Highway 82 was built on the abandoned railroad right of way.
The rail line climbed 4000' in 26 miles and had several dozen wooden trestles.
This was the largest trestle and one of the few that remain.
1.
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View of the Mexican Trestle from Hwy 82 just before the city limits
of Cloudcroft. These images were taken at 2 PM so the light is not
good. At certain times of the year near sunset light should
be a possibility at this location.
2.
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Tighter view of the curving railroad trestle taken while down climbing from the highway to the trestle.
3.
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View from the top of the railroad bridge abutment. A better sense of the scale of the bridge is
possible if you down climb to the old railroad grade.
4.
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Because the deck has collapsed at the trestle abutment it would be difficult to climb onto the top of the bridge.
Apparently, this collapse is very recent according to a local.
Visitors were able to walk the deck in the recent past. It
would be great if the city or state would repair the deck.
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This photo shows the latticework of huge timbers that support the railroad trestle deck. As a guess, the
trestle is built from 10"x10" or 12"x12" timbers and the deck from 8"x16" or
10"x18". The bridge is larger than it appears in these images.
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