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Mountain Quarries RR Bridge

Placer County, California, and El Dorado County, California
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Photos 

No Hands Bridge

Looking down river to the West

Photo taken by Craig Philpott in 1982

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Map 

Street View 

Description 

Opened for service March 23, 1912.

Facts 

Overview
Closed-spandrel Reinforced concrete arch bridge over North Fork American River
Location
Placer County, California, and El Dorado County, California
Status
Open to pedestrians & horses
Future prospects
Placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004
History
Built in 1912 as standard gauge 7 mile railroad to limestone quarry in El Dorado County from Auburn
Builders
- John B. Leonard (Engineer)
- Mountain Quarries Co.
- Pacific Portland Cement Co.
Design
Reinforced concrete bridge. Single lane Closed spandrel concrete deck arch
Dimensions
Length of largest span: 140.0 ft.
Total length: 582.0 ft.
Deck width: 15.0 ft.
Skew angle
10 degrees
Recognition
Posted to the National Register of Historic Places on February 11, 2004
Also called
No-Hands Bridge
Approximate latitude, longitude
+38.91269, -121.04163   (decimal degrees)
38°54'46" N, 121°02'30" W   (degrees°minutes'seconds")
Approximate UTM coordinates
10/669794/4308910 (zone/easting/northing)
USGS topographic map
Auburn
Inventory numbers
NRHP 04000014 (National Register of Historic Places reference number)
BH 44524 (Bridgehunter.com ID)

Categories 

Arch (9,440)
Built 1912 (526)
Built during 1910s (6,761)
California (1,631)
Closed-spandrel arch (2,774)
Deck arch (8,724)
El Dorado County, California (19)
Have street view (10,035)
John B. Leonard (21)
Mountain Quarries Co. (1)
Mountain Quarries Railroad (1)
NR-listed (2,355)
One-lane traffic (7,119)
 Open to Equestrians (10)
Open to pedestrians (1,959)
Owned by state (9,853)
Pacific Portland Cement Co. (1)
Placer County, California (31)
Preserved (662)
Rail-to-road (92)
Rail-to-trail (512)
Railroad (4,223)
Skewed (4,083)
Span length 125-175 feet (2,966)
Total length 500-1000 feet (1,819)

Update Log 

  • January 23, 2013: Updated by Luke Harden: Changed to common name.
  • July 18, 2012: New photos from Brian Smith
  • July 25, 2011: Updated by Craig Philpott: added engineer data
  • March 21, 2010: Added by Craig Philpott

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Comments 

No-Hands Bridge
Posted January 23, 2013, by Luke Harden (lmharden [at] iastate [dot] edu)

For future reference: the categories "rail-to-road" & "one lane traffic" have been added because, for a period in the mid-1960s, this bridge was pressed into service as a one lane road bridge whilst the highway 49 bridge was being rebuilt after being washed out. The bridge didn't have a guardrail, which made crossing somewhat hairy. This is where the common name, "No-Hands Bridge" came from.