The Coyote Creek Trestle is at the southern terminus of the Five Wounds Trail that runs through Coyote Meadows (the old Story Road Landfill) and crosses Coyote Creek near Story Road. It also crosses Coyote Creek Trail, and Five Wounds trail is planned to have a connection to that trail at the bridge across Coyote Creek.
Press Coverage
The following press coverage is on our advocacy in Saving the Coyote Creek Trestle and completing the Five Wounds Trail.
•San Jose Spotlight wrote an article on the efforts of Save Our Trails to save the trestle.
•SJSU Update News did an interview of Larry Ames and Keith Ball and its is available on YouTube. The link is to the start of our clip, but includes the remainder of their full 30 minute show.
2026
During the Jan 17,. 2026 Board Meeting, the board approved the creation of a sub-committee to work on saving the old Western Pacific Railroad Coyote Creek Trestle from being torn down by the City of San Jose when building the new modern bridge at the terminus of the Five Wounds Trail. At the meeting, Larry Ames presented a slide deck of possible project options for 2 sub-committees.
In the city’s own consultant reports they presented 3 options:
Option 1: upgrade the trestle into the bridge for trail use. This was found too expensive and required substantial modifications to the trestle. No one has deemed this worth doing; the trestle loses much of its historical nature.
Option 2: tear down the trestle and build a new modern bridge in its place. This is the option the city’s park department has been advocating for. It has presented it to City Council members, the Planning Department, and the Historical Landmarks Commission.
Option 3: leave the trestle in place and stabilize it, no longer allowing any traffic on the trestle. Build the modern bridge nearby. This turns out to be the cheapest construction cost and is the option that Save Our Trails is advocating. We believe this will save the trestle, lower development costs, and allow the trail to be completed in less time (at less 6 months less of construction time).
The next major action will be the March 4, 2026 Historical Landmark Commission Meeting, where the Five Wounds Trail’s bridge options will be presented to the City’s commission. We intend to advocate with the Commission to add the Trestle as a Historical Landmark. We sent a letter advocating for Option 3 below to the Historical Landmark Commission.
The initial focus of the sub-committee’s efforts have been to
a) Get support from other organizations that have an interest in the trestle and in the completion of the Five Wounds trail. These include several of the Neighborhood Associations in the surrounding area:
○Spartan Keyes Neighborhood Association, which has agreed to write a letter to the Historical Landmark Commission. We will be meeting with them at their upcoming Feb 26, 2026 meeting. The letter we sent to them.
○We also sent letters to Alma Neighborhood Association (letter), Goodyear Neighborhood Association (letter), McKinley-Bonita Neighborhood Association (letter), Olinder Neighborhood Association (letter), University Neighborhoods Coalition (letter).
○We contacted the D7 Leadership Group (letter), where Alie Victorine is President, and they have agreed to write a letter to the City’s Historical Landmark Commission.
b) Get support from the Preservation Council of San Jose (letter), which has already stated they are in support of saving the trestle, will send a letter to the Historical Landmark Commission, and has offered us assistance in this effort. We have followed-up with them asking for additional help.
c) Meet with the District 6 (Bien Doan), District 3 (Anthony Tordillos) and District 7 (Michael Mulcahy) council members on getting them to support saving the Trestle and completing the Five Wounds Trail with the modern bridge next to it. We have used this presentation in the meetings with each of the council members and their teams. Meeting with District 6 staff was on Feb 9. Meeting with District 3 council member Tordillos was on Feb 25. Meeting with District 7 staff was on Feb 26.
On March 4, the San Jose Historic Landmarks Commission met and Liz Sewell, Trail Manager for San Jose Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services (PRNS), presented the city’s current status on the Five Wounds Trail and explicitly the status of preserving or demolishing the Coyote Creek Trestle and building the modern bridge at the southern terminus of the Five Wounds Trail. It was very clear to the commissioners and Save Our Trails representatives that the city is very much in favor of Alternative 2 (demolish the trestle and build the modern bridge). They are very concerned about stability, maintenance cost, and continuing fires.
The commissioners comments on the presentation were very favorable in preserving the old Coyote Creek Trestle. In addition, Ben Leech, executive director of Preservation Action Council, San Jose, also spoke in favor of preserving the trestle. Bruce Victorine, from Save Our Trails, read the District 6 Leadership Group letter in favor of preserving the trestle and building a nearby modern bridge. Lastly, the Save Our Trails representatives (Keith Ball, Larry Ames, and Bill Ranking) spoke in favor of in favor of Alternate 3, with a modification of moving the bridge nearby. In addition to the spoken comments, the commission received several letters, including the one from Save Our Trails and the All District Leadership Group in favor of preserving the trestle and building the nearby modern bridge.
Here is Larry Ames’ proposed alternative location for the modern bridge for Alternate 3 (stabilize trestle and build modern bridge nearby):
