The steel girder and truss bridge is over long . It provides the only major road between the town of Hilo and the Hāmākua district . It was originally built as a railroad bridge for sugarcane trains , but after the 1946 tsunami the railroad was abandoned and the bridge rebuilt for automobiles . E. Claude Moore was the County Engineer who designed and executed the plan to use the old railroad bridges to span the ravines for the Hawaii belt road . Claude Moore was a World War II veteran of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers . He attended Iowa State College and worked for the Iowa Highway Commission prior to World War II . After the stint as County Engineer , Claude Moore worked as a Civil Engineer for C Brewer Company . He designed many subdivisions on the island , and was a long time Scout leader and Director of what is now HFS Credit Union
1946 tsunami
1946 Aleutian Islands earthquake
Kolekole Beach Park