The Virginia Street Bridge was a historic concrete double arch bridge in downtown

Reno Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada-California border, about north from Lake Tahoe, known as "The Biggest Little City in the World". Known for its casino and tourism industry, Reno is the c ...

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

, US, carrying

Virginia Street U.S. Route 395 Business (US 395 Bus.) is a north–south state highway in Reno, Nevada. The highway follows Virginia Street, the primary north–south arterial street of the area. US 395 is also designated as State Route 430 (SR ...

across the

Truckee River The Truckee River is a river in the U.S. states of California and Nevada. The river flows northeasterly and is long.U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed October 20, 2012 The ...

. It was added to 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 1980. The bridge is sometimes referred to as the "Wedding Ring Bridge" or the "Bridge of Sighs". In both 2002 and 2006, the bridge was listed as one of the "Eleven Most Endangered Historic Places in Nevada" by Preserve Nevada, a

historic preservation Historic preservation (US), built heritage preservation or built heritage conservation (UK), is an endeavor that seeks to preserve, conserve and protect buildings, objects, landscapes or other artifacts of historical significance. It is a philos ...

organization partnered with the

University of Nevada, Las Vegas The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) is a public land-grant research university in Paradise, Nevada. The campus is about east of the Las Vegas Strip. It was formerly part of the University of Nevada from 1957 to 1969. It includes the S ...

(UNLV). Due to structural and

flood control Flood control methods are used to reduce or prevent the detrimental effects of flood waters."Flood Control", MSN Encarta, 2008 (see below: Further reading). Flood relief methods are used to reduce the effects of flood waters or high water level ...

concerns, the bridge was replaced in 2016.

History

Built in 1905, the current Virginia Street Bridge is the fifth in a series of bridges to have been built in downtown Reno. The first was a wooden bridge built in 1860 by

Charles W. Fuller Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was "f ...

and was hence called Fuller's Crossing. After it was destroyed by a

flood A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrol ...

, a second bridge, a toll bridge, was built and sold to Myron Lake in 1861, although in 1867 it was also destroyed by a flood. Even though it was replaced by yet another bridge, it became unneeded after the arrival of the

Transcontinental Railroad A transcontinental railroad or transcontinental railway is contiguous railroad trackage, that crosses a continental land mass and has terminals at different oceans or continental borders. Such networks can be via the tracks of either a single ...

. In 1877, the Washoe County authorized the creation of a new

tied-arch bridge A tied-arch bridge is an arch bridge in which the outward horizontal forces of the arch(es) caused by tension at the arch ends to a foundation are countered by equal tension of its own gravity plus any element of the total deck structure such grea ...

made of

iron Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in f ...

. In 1905, the iron bridge was moved and the current bridge, designed by

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

John B. Leonard John Buck Leonard (1864–1945) was a pioneering bridge engineer and architect, early advocate for reinforced concrete, working mainly in northern California. Life Leonard was born in Union City, Michigan, and educated at Michigan State and t ...

, was built by Cotton Brothers and Company of

Oakland Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay A ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

Legend

Legend has it that newly

divorce Divorce (also known as dissolution of marriage) is the process of terminating a marriage or marital union. Divorce usually entails the canceling or reorganizing of the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage, thus dissolving the ...

d women would, after exiting the

Washoe County Courthouse The Washoe County Courthouse, at 117 S. Virginia St. in Reno, Nevada, was built in 1910. It is significant for playing a role in the divorce industry in Nevada during the first half of the 20th century, when divorce was legal in Nevada and liberal ...

, stand on the Virginia Street Bridge and cast their wedding rings into the Truckee River below. Hence, the bridge became known as the main symbol of Reno, which was called the "Divorce Capital of the World" beginning in 1906. Over the years, salvage divers have found actual rings, according to

archivist An archivist is an information professional who assesses, collects, organizes, preserves, maintains control over, and provides access to Document, records and archives determined to have long-term value. The records maintained by an archivist c ...

Guy Rocha. In the 1961 film '' The Misfits'',

Marilyn Monroe Marilyn Monroe (; born Norma Jeane Mortenson; 1 June 1926 4 August 1962) was an American actress. Famous for playing comedic " blonde bombshell" characters, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1950s and early 1960s, as wel ...

considers tossing her wedding ring from the Virginia Street Bridge, but decides against it.

References

External links

* {{Nevada State Historic Places/Washoe County Arch bridges in the United States Bridges completed in 1905 Buildings and structures in Reno, Nevada Concrete bridges in the United States Former toll bridges in Nevada Historic American Engineering Record in Nevada National Register of Historic Places in Reno, Nevada Road bridges on the National Register of Historic Places in Nevada Transportation in Reno, Nevada 1905 establishments in Nevada

History

See also

Legend

References

External links