The Otowi Suspension Bridge, spanning the

Rio Grande River The Rio Grande ( and ), known in Mexico as the Río Bravo del Norte or simply the Río Bravo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The length of the Rio G ...

near San Ildefonso, New Mexico, is a wooden

suspension bridge A suspension bridge is a type of bridge in which the deck (bridge), deck is hung below suspension wire rope, cables on vertical suspenders. The first modern examples of this type of bridge were built in the early 1800s. Simple suspension bridg ...

built in 1924. It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1997. The bridge has been closed to vehicular traffic since the late 1940s, when a two-lane steel bridge was constructed just north of it. In its 1996 NRHP nomination, it is asserted to be significant in the areas of transportation and engineering. It was important for having opened a large part of New Mexico to automobile traffic, including the site of the

Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos National Laboratory (often shortened as Los Alamos and LANL) is one of the sixteen research and development laboratories of the United States Department of Energy (DOE), located a short distance northwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico, ...

, which became nationally important during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. It was also the only public highway suspension bridge in the state and was the best-rated bridge in the state in a 1987 survey. with It was a

contributing property In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distri ...

in the listing of the

Otowi Historic District The Otowi Historic District is a historic district in northern Santa Fe County, New Mexico, having four contributing buildings and three contributing structures including Otowi Suspension Bridge and was listed on the National Register of Hist ...

to the National Register in 1975. with (including several of the suspension bridge)

References

Bridges completed in 1924 Buildings and structures in Santa Fe County, New Mexico Road bridges on the National Register of Historic Places in New Mexico Suspension bridges in the United States National Register of Historic Places in Santa Fe County, New Mexico Bridges over the Rio Grande Towers in New Mexico Wooden bridges in the United States {{NewMexico-bridge-struct-stub

See also

References