The Devil's Canyon Bridge (located in
Pinal County, Arizona) was built in 1921 and listed on the
National Register of Historic Places in 1988.
[ It is an historic abandoned section of ]U.S. Route 60
U.S. Route 60 is a major east–west United States highway, traveling from southwestern Arizona to the Atlantic Ocean coast in Virginia.
The highway's eastern terminus is in Virginia Beach, Virginia, where it is known as Pacific Avenue, in the ...
over Devil's Canyon.[Google maps, and pic info at Commons.wikimedia.org.]
Described as a medium-span, filled-spandrel arch, with a moderate arch barrel rise, a roadway which cantilevered over the arches on both sides, a corbeled arch ring and paneled concrete parapets with steel pipe guardrails. Under the supervision of AHD Resident Engineer H.B. Wright, a force account labor crew constructed the Devil's Canyon Bridge in 1921–22 for a total cost of $23,780. It carried traffic until its replacement in 1941. The Devil's Canyon Bridge now stands abandoned beside U.S. 60. The Devil's Canyon Bridge is historically significant as an integral part fone of the state's most important early highway projects. Additionally, this structure is technologically important as an early example of a statewide bridge design trend.
The Arizona Highway Department used three basic concrete arch configurations In the 1910s and 1920s: the Luten arch
A Luten arch is a patented concrete arch design for bridges, designed by Daniel B. Luten, of Indianapolis. Luten was awarded more than 30 patents for his improvements of the Luten arch design.
The Luten arch improves upon preceding concrete arc ...
, the open spandrel arch, and what it termed the "common arch" – or segmental filled spandrel – design. Longspan examples of the former were engineered by their inventor, Daniel Luten, or his assistants. The latter two were designed in-house by AHD bridge engineers for medium-to-long-span applications. The Devil's Canyon Bridge is noteworthy as the oldest such AHD-designed common arch remaining in Arizona. It was followed soon by other similar AHD spans, among them the Lynx Creek Bridge (1922), Verde River Bridge
The Verde River Bridge near Paulden, Arizona, was built in 1922. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.
It is a filled spandrel arch bridge with a span.P. E-13
It is located on Sullivan Lake Rd., what is now labe ...
(1922–23) and Fossil Creek Bridge
Fossil Creek Bridge is a closed-spandrel deck arch bridge built in the U.S. state of Arizona during 1924–25 on Cottonwood-Camp Verde-Pine road across Fossil Creek. The road, also known as Fossil Creek Road, crosses the creek at a point where ...
(1924), all featuring similar Luten-like reinforcing, span lengths and concrete detailing."[ With ]
References
External links
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{{National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places in Pinal County, Arizona
Buildings and structures completed in 1921