Bagby Stationhouse, Water Tanks and Turntable | |
Location | CA 140, El Portal, California |
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Coordinates | 37°40′27″N119°46′47″W / 37.67417°N 119.77972°W |
Area | less than one acre |
Built | 1907 |
Architect | Yosemite Valley Railroad |
Architectural style | Armstrong gallows frame |
NRHP reference No. | 79000316 [1] |
Added to NRHP | April 13, 1979 |
The Bagby Stationhouse, Water Tanks and Turntable are associated with the Yosemite Valley Railroad (YVRR), which ran from Merced, California to El Portal at the entrance to Yosemite National Park. The railroad operated from 1907 to 1945.
The structures now located at El Portal were built in Bagby, and were moved from that location in 1966 when the townsite was to be inundated by the filling of Lake McClure behind New Exchequer Dam. [2]
Bagby Stationhouse is a rectangular wood-frame structure measuring 16 feet (4.9 m) by 40 feet (12 m). The two-story building was designed for a narrow site between the railroad tracks and the Merced River at Bagby. The hipped roof overhangs by 3 feet (0.91 m). The downstairs portion of the station comprises three rooms, a waiting room at one and a freight room at the other, separated by an office. The second floor was built as living accommodations for the stationmaster, with a living room, bedroom, kitchen, bath and enclosed porch. [2] The station is now used by the Yosemite Conservancy.
There are two water tanks at El Portal, salvaged from Bagby. The wood tanks stand on a timber structure and are 30 feet (9.1 m) high overall. A gabled standing seam metal roof runs over both tanks, whose wood sides are held with iron bands. The support framing is 12" x 12" timber. [2]
The turntable was built at Bagby. It is reputed to be the last manually operated gallows-frame standard-gauge turntable left in the United States. The turntable was built of heavy timber, tied together with iron rods. The central gallows is a 16-foot (4.9 m) timber frame, with a king post truss composed of one-inch iron rods from the frame to the ends of the turntable.The turntable pivoted on wheels running on a single circular rail, 8 feet (2.4 m) in diameter. [2]
The structures are located on National Park Service-owned property in El Portal, just outside Yosemite National Park proper, and are administered by the park. The ensemble was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 13, 1979. [1]
Yosemite Valley is a glacial valley in Yosemite National Park in the western Sierra Nevada mountains of Central California, United States. The valley is about 7.5 mi (12.1 km) long and 3,000–3,500 ft (910–1,070 m) deep, surrounded by high granite summits such as Half Dome and El Capitan, and densely forested with pines. The valley is drained by the Merced River, and a multitude of streams and waterfalls flow into it, including Tenaya, Illilouette, Yosemite and Bridalveil Creeks. Yosemite Falls is the highest waterfall in North America and is a big attraction, especially in the spring, when the water flow is at its peak. The valley is renowned for its natural environment and is regarded as the centerpiece of Yosemite National Park.
The Merced River, in the central part of the U.S. state of California, is a 145-mile (233 km)-long tributary of the San Joaquin River flowing from the Sierra Nevada into the San Joaquin Valley. It is most well known for its swift and steep course through the southern part of Yosemite National Park, where it is the primary watercourse flowing through Yosemite Valley. The river's character changes dramatically once it reaches the plains of the agricultural San Joaquin Valley, where it becomes a slow-moving meandering stream.
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El Portal is a census-designated place in Mariposa County, California, United States. It is located 11.5 miles (19 km) west-southwest of Yosemite Village, at an elevation of 1,939 feet (591 m). The population was 372 at the 2020 census, down from 474 at the 2010 census.
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Bagby was an unincorporated community in Mariposa County, California. It was located on the north bank of the Merced River 9.5 miles (15 km) northeast of Hornitos, at an elevation of 830 feet. Lake McClure covers the original town site.
The Yosemite Valley Railroad (YVRR) was a short-line railroad that operated in California from 1907 to 1945, providing a new mode of travel and tourism for the region. It ran from Merced to the Yosemite National Park, but it did not extend to Yosemite Valley itself, as railroad construction was prohibited in the National Parks. Tourists would disembark at the park boundary in El Portal, California and stay overnight at the Hotel Del Portal before taking a stagecoach to Yosemite Valley.
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The Yosemite Valley Bridges are eight bridges in the Yosemite Valley of Yosemite National Park, most of them spanning the Merced River. Five of them were built in 1928, with the remainder built between 1921 and 1933. The bridges feature a concrete structure faced with local stone, in an elliptical or three-centered arch configuration. They are notable for their uniform character and for their conformance to tenets of the National Park Service rustic style. Design work for the seven newer bridges was by George D. Whittle of the San Francisco District Office of the U.S. Bureau of Public Roads for the National Park Service. Concrete bridges were chosen at the urging of Thomas Chalmers Vint of the Park Service, in lieu of alternative designs for steel truss bridges, or suspension bridges suggested by the park superintendent.
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