Linn Crossing Trestle Bridge, Spanning County Road 71, Linn Crossing, Jefferson County, AL

Significance: Approximately 15 to 20 frame residences remain today, along with the wooden trestle bridge that still carries coal trains from nearby Jim Walter Nebo and Chetopa mines over the former Southern Railway tracks. In the 1890s, only seven families lived between Linn Crossing and Adamsville. Settlement at the crossing dates to 1880, when the Linn family cemetery was established on a high knoll near the crossing. Adjacent to the cemetery the white frame Antioch Baptist Church, the religious and social hub of the community, now stands. By 1887, the Georgia Pacific (later Southern) Railroad extended through the Linn farmlands and people came from miles around to board trains bound for Birmingham and Atlanta. In 1903, the L. & N. extended the Cane Creek Branch of the Birmingham Mineral Railroad to Banner, further opening the area to mining. The two railroads crossed at this small community that had grown to 15 or 20 frame structures.
Survey number: HAER AL-62
Building/structure dates: ca. 1881 Initial Construction