Technology - Bridges

Labor Day weekend 1959.

It had been completed barely 6 months when this photo was taken.

It had been completed barely 6 months when this photo was taken.

Crossing Marble Canyon below Lee's Ferry on the Colorado River. This is the original bridge that was completed in 1929, already 30 years old in 1959. It bypassed Lee's Ferry a few miles upstream. A new, parallel bridge was (finally!) opened in 1995, at which time the original bridge was restricted to foot traffic. To this day there is no automobile crossing over the Colorado between here and Hoover Dam downstream. (There is a couple of footbridges at Phantom Ranch in the Grand Canyon.)

It had been completed barely 6 months when this photo was taken. Note the slot carved out of the canyon wall beyond the bridge where Glen Canyon Dam will be built.

It had been completed barely 6 months when this photo was taken. Note the slot carved out of the canyon wall beyond the bridge where Glen Canyon Dam will be built.

It had been completed barely 6 months when this photo was taken.

North on the right. Known as the "Black Bridge" or the "Kaibab Bridge," it crosses from the South Kaibab trail, down from the South Rim, to Phantom Ranch. Along with the Silver Bridge just downstream, which connects the Bright Angel trail, they are the only crossings of the Colorado between Navajo Bridge and Hoover Dam.

Swept away by the mudflow down the Toutle ("tootle") River in the May, 1980 eruption of Mt. St. Helens, Washington state, USA. Still just lying there like a crushed beer can 5 years later.