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Rock Creek Bridge

Mendocino County, California
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Photo 

Rock creek

Undated photo source: California Highways, A descriptive record of road development by the state and such counties as have paved highways. Ben Blow, 1920 (Google Books)

Photo by Craig Philpott

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Description 

"The remoteness of the locality and the absence of any method of transportation made steel bridges an impossibility while vast redwood forests close at hand supplied plenty of lumber, so it was that a sawmill was dragged in and set up with vast labor and timber bridges built, one of them, the Rock Creek bridge, a timber arch of unique design being erected without the use of any false work and the only structure of its type in the United States." source: California Highways, A descriptive record of road development by the state and such counties as have paved highways. Ben Blow, 1920 (Google Books)

Facts 

Overview
Lost Arch bridge over Rock Creek on US ROUTE 101
Location
Mendocino County, California
Status
Replaced by new bridge
History
Current bridge installed 2000, unknown count on previous bridges at this location.
Design
Timber, three hinged lattice arch.
Approximate latitude, longitude
+39.87790, -123.72358   (decimal degrees)
39°52'40" N, 123°43'25" W   (degrees°minutes'seconds")
Approximate UTM coordinates
10/438125/4414456 (zone/easting/northing)
USGS topographic map
Noble Butte
Inventory number
BH 48889 (Bridgehunter.com ID)

Categories 

Arch (9,438)
California (1,631)
Deck arch (8,723)
Have street view (10,033)
Lost (10,487)
Mendocino County, California (50)
Owned by state (9,851)
Replaced by new bridge (7,211)

Update Log 

  • June 13, 2011: Updated by Craig Philpott: refined design description
  • June 11, 2011: New Street View added by Craig Philpott
  • June 10, 2011: Updated by Craig Philpott: added history and design details

Sources 

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Comments 

Rock Creek Bridge
Posted June 13, 2011, by Michael Goff (michael [dot] goff [at] odot [dot] state [dot] or [dot] us)

Craig,

This appears to be a three-hinged arch with latticed arch ribs. I have a arch design text book by Conde McCullough that has examples of common arch arrangements. In this book McCullough shows an arrangement similar to this one. The example shows lenticular shaped rib segments, but this one is quite similar.

I have attached the page showing some of the typical arch arrangements as presented by McCullough.

I hope this helps out.

Mike

View attachment #1 (PDF document, version 1.4, 102114 bytes)

Rock Creek Bridge, arch type?
Posted June 10, 2011, by Craig Philpott (cphilpott [at] puc [dot] edu)

OK friends, what we have here is an arch, a wooden arch, pre 1920. What kind of arch is this? This bridge was located on a primary road into the redwood logging country of Northern California. The exact route and bridge location is now used by Hwy 101.