This week in 1881, 140 years ago, lawmen Wyatt, Virgil and Morgan Earp, with Doc Holliday, fought it out at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone with the the cattle-rustling "Cowboys," including the Clantons and the McLaurys.

Three men died and two were injured in the infamous gun battle, which has since been the subject of a multitude of movies, books, biographies, history lessons and televised series.

According to various accounts, the most famous shootout in the history of shootouts occured at 3:00 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 26, 1881.

There is some dispute about where the bullets flew: Was it the O.K. Corral, which fronted Allen Street and had a rear entrance on Fremont Street, or was it outside C.S. Fly's photo studio on Fremont Street?  Either way, there is agreement that it was fought, either entirely or in part, on Fremont Street, which today is State Route 80.  

"Historians have advanced various explanations as to the why of the misnamed Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, which was, properly speaking, a bloodletting on Fremont Street and an adjoining lot in Tombstone, Ari- zona Territory, on October 26, 1881," author Roger Jay said in an article on HistoryNet. 

Of course, Fremont street was a dirt road back then, and the combatants more than likely arrived on horseback for their date with destiny. It wasn’t until some 40 years later that US 80 entered Arizona along the path of what is now State Route 80, passing through Douglas, Bisbee, Tombstone and Benson, then over to Tucson. 

US 80 is often referred to as the "Mother of Arizona Highways" because its history generally aligns with the rising popularity of the automobile.

From there, the highway replaced a plank road across the sand dunes between Yuma and California's Imperial Valley, offering ways to either San Diego or Los Angeles.

SR 80 has received a lot of love in the form or improvement projects from ADOT. In 2015, while contemporary characters re-enacted the shootout daily in Tombstone, ADOT contractors were recreating the adobe bricks originally used for building in the late 1870s.

As part of that 2015 $1 million improvement project, crews also replaced the sidewalk in front of historic Schieffelin Hall, the former theater and ballroom built in 1881, and along both sides of Fremont Street, which is the local name of SR 80 in Tombstone.

ADOT narrowed the road and added lighting to improve pedestrian safety, and the appearance, of the “The Town too Tough to Die.”

At the time, Southeast District Engineer Bill Harmon said, “Tombstone is a national treasure and authentic features like Schieffelin Hall are becoming extremely rare. Tombstone is much more than a premise for ‘Old West’ movies. It behooves us to preserve and safeguard Schieffelin Hall for future generations.”

When you think of a bridge, you probably imagine some long span crossing a deep canyon or large river. It's easy to overlook the humbler examples that cross small crevices and washes. 

And that's exactly what you'll find with the Ligurta Wash Bridge, not to be confused with the nearby and similarly named Ligurta Underpass, which we told you about in a previous blog.

Located on Old US Highway 80 near the eponymous community, the Ligurta Wash Bridge began its life in 1930. The Arizona Highway Department wanted to improve the Yuma-Wellton Highway (as that section of US 80 was then called), which started just east of Ligurta and ended about 5.5 miles away, before Wellton. The improvement plans included the construction of two nearly identical reinforced-concrete bridges over intermittent washes.

And speaking of design, the bridge is also one of the best surviving examples of a new girder standard. The state of Arizona was using concrete for bridges as early as 1910. The earliest girder bridges, such as the Antelope Hill Bridge, had two deep girders cast as part of the concrete deck. By the 1920s, the new standard was four or more shallower girders, which allowed for greater clearance under the bridge. The Ligurta Wash Bridge uses this refined design.

Construction began in the summer of 1930, and the bridge was opened to traffic the following spring. For many years, the Ligurta Wash Bridge carried much of the US 80 traffic. When Interstate 8 was built in the late 1960s, US 80 traffic dropped quite a bit, but the bridge remained standing. Now overseen by Yuma County, the Ligurta Wash Bridge lives on in its original form, carrying local traffic alongside I-8. It may not see the amount of traffic it used to, but its design has withstood the test of time.