Do us a favor and pick a bridge – any bridge – across the Salt River.

Which one came to mind? Maybe along Interstate 10 near Sky Harbor International Airport? Then there are the crossings on Loop 202 Red Mountain Freeway near where it hits Loop 101 Pima Freeway and the Loop 202 South Mountain between Broadway and Southern. If you are feeling particular adventurous, you might have gone for the US 60 bridges going up the approriately named Salt River Canyon. 

As we've mentioned previously, there are quite a few crossings across this important Arizona waterway. But there is one that seems to receive a lot less attention, and we aim to change that.

Meet the OTHER Salt River bridge. It has carried State Route 288 traffic across the river in Gila County since 1920. More impressive than its centennial of service is the fact that it has done so without being changed.

The bridge began coming to life in 1918, when the newly formed Bureau of Public Roads (one of the predecessors to the Federal Highway Administration) began scouting a location for a new road in the Tonto and Crook National Forest. This earth road would intersect with the Apache Trail near Roosevelt and then 44 miles north to the town of Young. One of the new road's major components was a bridge over the Salt River, near the head of Roosevelt Lake. The bridge design was completed in 1919 and the structure was built by the end of 1920. If you look at our historic bridge inventory for Gila County, you'll see that it's inventory number is only 37, so yes, it was one of the earliest bridges built after Arizona became a state.

The bridge itself features a long-span steel truss, know as a Parker truss, with footings set directly into the solid-rock shoreline, as well as a concrete deck flanked by steel pipe guardrails. You can still see all that today, as the bridge remains almost exactly as it was built, with very few alterations done over the decades.

Although it's considered a remote crossing, the SR 288 Salt River Bridge is important in state bridge history. It's the earliest documented example of a bridge constructed by the Bureau of Public Roads in Arizona. The agency was extensively involved with road and bridge construction throughout the state, both indirectly by reviewing state-engineered federal-aid projects and directly by building roads and structures through national monuments, forests and parks. If that wasn't good enough, the bridge is also remarkable as the earliest and longest through-truss bridge still in its original location. Finally, just for added fame, it's also only one of four Parker trusses found in ADOT's statewide bridge inventory. 

We could also add that Roosevelt Lake is a just a scenic place for an afternoon drive, and what better way to remember this other Salt River bridge than by using it? And maybe you could wish it a happy 101th birthday while you are at it.

We think it doesn't look a day over 65!

 

Is it just a bridge, or a beautiful piece of technology and metalwork? The answer - if you're talking about the Salt River Canyon bridge - is both!

It all began in 1930, when Arizona Highway Department surveyors started looking around for a new all-weather route to Arizona's northeast region. They found the nearly perfect bridge site 43 miles north of Globe, at the Salt River Canyon. But concrete was scarce and the bridge had to be a single free span over the canyon, so the department settled upon a two-hinged steel deck arch design.  

Once work on US 60 was ready, construction of the bridge began once in 1933. The project proceeded slowly because of multiple issues getting the bridge's curvature just right. In January 1934, work began on the first pylon. By June, the bridge was finally finished. Unlike most bridges designed by the highway department at the time - which tended to be unadorned and utilitiarian -  this one was distinguished by decorative steel pylons at the arch corners and ornamented steel guardrails that flanked the curved concrete deck. The beauty was not lost on the public. In fact, one of the department's engineers remarked that at a distance, with its shining aluminum features, the Salt River Canyon bridge looked "more like a delicate piece of filigree than a well-designed and constructed highway bridge."

On the technological side, this was the first girder-ribbed steel arch done by the Arizona Highway Department. It was able to go up quicker than the then-standard spandrel-braced arch, so this soon became the bridge-construction norm. For decades after, the Salt River Canyon bridge carried vehicular traffic with minimal maintenance. Eventually it would be replaced when the newer, higher-capacity bridge opened to traffic in 1996.

Although it no longer carries vehicles, the original bridge is still there. Pedestrians can still walk along it, and can also rest from their walk at the restored Salt River Canyon rest area nearby before continuing on their way. And, of course, they can enjoy the view, whether that's of the canyon for the beautiful piece of filigree crossing it.