You asked for addition information about the last time a train crossed the Fruitvale lift span. [
www.altamontpress.com]
The Miller-Sweeny Bridge tenders maintain a book in which things related to the railroad bridge are entered. It's similar to a "Trouble Book" kept by Control Operators, but was also used to record train movements. The good news is, the book is still being maintained and updated on a daily basis. The bad news is, a new book was started in April 2008 and the old book apparently wasn't retained (no requirement to do so).
None of the UP employees can provide a date (all crew members who worked the job, along with the yardmaster and the local managers, have long since retired). I talked to one of the bridge tenders today, who doesn't remember when the last crossing happened while that person was working, other than it was a long time ago.
So, at this point I cannot come up with an exact date, but I'll keep trying.