From the archives: Mystery men of I-40 bridge construction in 1966

Going through our photo archive recently, we found a batch of really neat photos taken during construction of the Rio de Flag bridges on Interstate 40 near Flagstaff in January of 1966. 

The bridges are separate eastbound and westbound structures where I-40 crosses over the Rio de Flag (also known as the River de Flag), which leads into the San Francisco Wash and eventually into the Little Colorado River.

The bridges, which were replaced in 2005, are not to be confused with the other Rio de Flag Bridge on I-40B/Historic Route 66, in downtown Flagstaff, which was ADOT replaced in 2021.

However, what we found most interesting about these photos were the unidentified men inspecting the bridge, one of who appears to be smoking a pipe on this cold winter's day.

Whoever labeled the photos several decades ago didn’t include their names, so we don’t know who exactly the men are, but we'll assume they worked for the Arizona Highway Department, which became ADOT more than eight years later on July 1, 1974.