State says bridge should be on historic register

Willow Glen group continues to fight to preserve trestle

The case for preserving the nearly century-old Willow Glen Trestle in San Jose got a big boost last week when the state Historic Resources Commission voted to place the wooden railroad bridge on the California Register of Historical Resources.

The commission’s May 10 vote in Pasadena followed a hearing where a group called Friends of the Willow Glen Trestle, the city’s historic preservation officer, a certified city-commissioned historian and former District 6 councilman Pierluigi Oliverio all presented arguments either for and against listing the trestle on the historic register.

Members of the Friends group, which has been fighting to preserve the trestle, thanked neighbors in a statement for sending letters to the commission in support of saving what they called “an important link to the families that farmed and had orchards here.”

“This amazing 95-yearold wooden train trestle in Willow Glen has supported many decades of history here in Santa Clara County when we were known as the Valley of Heart’s Delight,” Friends member Martha Heinrichs said in the statement. “It is an important link to the families that farmed and had orchards here; to those workers who labored picking the crops to send to the canneries; to those who worked in the canneries; and to those connected with the railroad.”

The National Register of Historic Places returned the Friends group’s previous nomination of the trestle for the federal list. The group has since sent the newest documents to the National Register for reconsideration, including transcripts from another state commission meeting last year.

The National Register has not yet decided whether to designate the trestle as historic, which would offer it significant protection but not necessarily save it from demolition.

For the past three years, the Friends group and city of San Jose have been caught in a legal tug-ofwar over the trestle. City officials want to raze the railroad relic and replace it with a brand-new $1 million steel bridge that’s sitting in storage, while supporters insist the city should spend an estimated $2 million restoring what they consider a piece of local history.