Hassayampa Bridge, Spanning Hassayampa River at old U.S. Highway 80, Arlington

Source document Quoted word for word from HAER ARIZ,7-ARL.V,1-. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

Spanning the Hassayampa River on old U.S. Highway 80 at Hassayampa, in Arlington vicinity; Northwest \ of Sec- tion 13, Township 1 South, Range 5 West; Maricopa County, Arizona. UTM: USGS Quadrangle: Hassayampa, Arizona (7% Minute Series, Construction Date: Designer: Arizona Highway Department Builder: Strong and Grant, Springville, Utah

Source document Quoted word for word from HAER ARIZ,7-ARL.V,1-. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

Through its various permutations, the Hassayampa Bridge exemplifies early Arizona bridge construction. First built in as a temporary timber trestle, it was upgraded in by the addition of two steel trusses, and later replaced entirely with the present concrete structure. The Hassayampa Bridge is significant as an integral part of U.S. Highway 80, arguably the state's most important east- west route. The bridge's completion in eliminated the last major obstacle to foul-weather driving on the route through Arizona. The bridge is illustrative for its use of the four-rib concrete deck girder - a standard structural type in Arizona in the and With its seven 45-foot gir- der spans, the Hassayampa Bridge represents one of the more noteworthy examples of its type in the state.

Assembled by: Clayton B. Fraser Fraserdesign Loveland Colorado July Hassayampa Bridge m HAER NO. AZ-36 mpage 2 The Historic American Engineering Record [HAER] documentation for the Hassa- yampa Bridge was conducted by Fraserdesign of Lovetand. Colorado, under contract with the Maricopa County Department of Transportation. MCDOT has proposed the replacement of the structure, and this recordation Is intended to mitigate, in part, the impact on the bridge by this action. Field recording of the Hassayampa Bridge was undertaken In May The research for this project has involved five primary archival sources: the Arizona Department of Transportation, the Phoenix Public Library. Arizona State Library.

Maricopa Coun- ty Department of Transportation and the Maricopa County Courthouse, all lo- cated in Phoenix.1 F rom when much of Arizona territory was acquired from Mexico by the Treaty of Guadalupe, until with the enactment of the Federal Organic Act that designated the Territory after its separation from New Mexico, Arizona was crossed by only two major overland routes. Both traversed the region from east to west. The northern route followed Army Lieutenant Edward Beale's sur- ' vey along the parallel. Known as Beale's Road, it was used almost entirely by hunters and trappers and the military traveling to California.

The southern route was constructed by the famed Mormon Brigade during the war with Mexico in Extending from Santa Fe to San Diego, this hurriedly built road entered Arizona territory in the southeast corner, extended north to the Gila River and then west to the Yuma Crossing of the Colorado River. Called the Gila Trail because it largely paralleled the Gila River, the road was later made popular by those rushing to California in search of gold. Other secondary routes - no more than trails, really - developed through the region by intermittent use. But it was these two main lines that carried most of the traffic through Arizona in the re- gion's earliest years.

At the point where the Gila Trail crossed the Colorado River, John Gallatin built a toll ferry in supplanting earlier Indian-operated ferries. Louis Jaeger started his own ferry service here a year later, after the Indians exacted their own toll on Gallatin by scalping him. A small settlement called Jaegerville soon developed on the California side of the ferry; in December the U.S. Army established a modest encampment, called Fort Yuma, a mile upriver. The town of Colorado City was platted on the Arizona side of the river four years later.2 This community changed names three times in its formative years - to Arizona, Yuma and Arizona City, successively - before its incorporation in as Yuma.

In addition to its role as a port for river boats that plied the Colorado River, Yuma served as a funnel for overland travelers between southern California and the m Hassayampa Bridge m HAER No. AZ-36 a page 3 East. Thousands of immigrants traveled westward on foot, wagons or horseback across tiv*-^1'1 ^ Trail, and the Butterfield Overland Stage followed ti * >*=>U throu- gh Yuma on its route between St. Louis and San Francisco. The arrival of the Southern Pacific Railroad to Yuma in further bolstered the small city's role as a Southwestern transportation nexus.3 Meanwhile, in the Salt River Valley some 180 miles east, another colony was growing around an agriculturally based economy.

The origins of Anglo settlement along the Salt River in central Arizona date from That year William John "Jack" Swilling, flamboyant Confederate army officer, prospector, Indian fighter and entrepreneur, formed the Swilling Irrigation Canal Company with John "Yours Truly" Smith, the post sutler at Fort McDowell. They opened the Swilling Ditch by clearing an ancient Hohokam Indian canal, supplying water to a grow- ing number of farms that sprang up along the ditch's length.4 Three years after the inception of the Swilling Ditch, the townsite of Phoenix was platted. Phoenix grew steadily with the rest of the Central Valley through the and The city's future as Arizona's central metropolis was guaranteed when in the Arizona Territorial Capital was moved to Phoenix from Prescott.

Although not directly on the Gila Trail, Phoenix was close enough to connect with it by a relatively short wagon road to the south. The Gila Trail thus served to link Phoenix with Yuma and points west, and eventually the northern swing through Phoenix became the main line through common use. w hether located in Prescott or Phoenix, the Territorial Legislature during this period made only minimal impact on overland transportation in Arizona, other than to grant charters to private toll road companies and enact laws passing the respon- sibility for road construction to the counties. Neither the territory nor the coun- ties had much money, though. As a result, road building in the century was largely undertaken by toll road operators or by the counties on an as-needed, emergency basis.

To fund road construction, the Territorial Assembly issued bonds totalling between and and$15,000in In the legislators appropriated funds for the first territorial bridge construction. But other than these tentative steps, the territorial government contributed little to road construction. Indeed, no territorial organization or staff had even been established to administer roads and bridges. After the turn of the century, it had become apparent that many major road pro- jects were beyond the capacity of the individual counties. Further, the counties were building roads on an individual basis, without regard to the roads in adja- cent counties. This tended to create an uneven patchwork of dissimilar routes, making travel difficult for all but a few destinations.

To take a more active role s? Hassayampa Bridge m HAER No. AZ-36 Mpage 4 in the development of intrastate highways, the Territorial Assembly in created the office of the Territorial Engdr. r. Girand, Arizona's first (and only) Territorial Engineer, soon thereafter began construction of several territorial highways. The strategy was to link the county seats and more populous towns through a network of graded, but unpaved, roads, which would vary in width from 16 feet to 24 feet, according to traffic and terrain.5 By the time Arizona was admitted to the Union in the territorial govern- ment had constructed some 243 miles of highway at an average cost of per mile.

Additionally, lineal feet of bridges over 100 feet in length had been built, totalling in value.7 Girand estimated that an additional 740 miles of trails and county roads would soon be upgraded to form highways, "completing the great east and west and north and south roads."8 The north-south highway extended from Douglas, in the state's southeast corner, north through Tucson, Phoenix and Flagstaff, terminating at the south rim of the Grand Canyon [See Figure 13. The east-west road paral- leled the Gila River east from Yuma, as had the Gila Trail, but now it followed the river's north side and branched north to Phoenix and Mesa.

East from Mesa the road followed the Apache Trail to Roose- velt Dam and wound through the moun- tains to Globe, looping southward to Dun- can, at the state's eastern border. "The routes selected had become fixed to a certain extent by the construction of sev- eral units of their length," stated Lamar Cobb, Arizona's first State Engineer, "and, thoughnot meeting with entire approval, they had also become fixed in the public mind as the State Highways.

It was, there- fore thought best not to make any changes in their location as it would undoubtedly lead to others by succeeding administra- tions, resulting in State Highways 'that would start nowhere and end nowhere,' thus defeating one object of the State Road appropriation - a State system of roads comprised of coordinating county units _ connecting every county seat in the 3 Figure 1. Map of Arizona, by Arizona State Engineer's Office, "9M State."9 Hassayampa Bridge HAER No. AZ-36 page 5 Despite this progress, Arizona roads were in dismal condition under the county road system.

In Cobb repor* 4 *n the state legislature: I have been over a great many roads in every county in the state except two, and I have not found a foot of properly graded and protected mountain road or road in a rolling country that was not constructed under the direction of the [territorial] engineer department. There are a few miles of graveled road in Graham, about & mile in Yuma and several miles of caliche road In Maricopa. I know of no other improved roads in the state, outside of the cities, towns or special road districts, though I may have missed a half mile or so elsewhere. Every two years the personnel of the various boards of supervisors is almost completely changed.

They go in imbued with the Idea that their predecessors squandered the county road funds and go out with the public equally confi- dent that they have. both more or less correct in their opinions, but it has not been the fauit of the supervisors. With county road funds of limited propor- tions to repair hundreds of miles of road, and with every man in the county clamoring for work in his locality, it has been next to impossible for them to set aside a sum. in any amount, for permanent work.10 A izona was slow to embrace the automobile in the largely due to the poor condi- tion of its roads. Even the major routes were little more than wagon tracks in places, troubled by steep, rocky grades in the mountains and shifting sand in the deserts.

In its appropriations for road and bridge construction, the state legis- lature was responding not only to requests from its Arizona constituency but to pressure from out of state as well. The Petrified Forest near Holbrook was des- ignated a national monument in Grand Canyon National Park was estab- lished in rapidly becoming one of the country's premier scenic attractions. These and a profusion of other sites drew tourists from all directions. As more sightseers were taking to the Western roads in cars or motor coaches, the need for better roads became more urgent. Added to this was the movement in the for transcontinental highways.

Two such transcontinental roads were routed through Arizona in the The Old Trails Highway followed the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad - which itself generally followed Beale's Road - over the width of the state. Later incorporated into Route 66 between Chicago and Los Angeles, this highway formed the major east-west route across northern Arizona. Despite its importance, the route was "just dirt all through Arizona," according to Valentine, Arizona, resident Robert Goldstein. "A [fifty mile] trip to Kingman might take two days if the washes was running."11 Similarly, the old Gila Trail was incorporated into the Ocean-to-Ocean Highway, which later became U.S. Highway 80 in Arizona. This route, portions of which Hassayampa Bridge m HAER No.

AZ-36 mpage 6 were the most heavily trafficked in the state, touched Douglas, Benson, Florence, Phoenix-cnd Yuma on its way across southern Arizona. Towns alcr.g the route that had been established to serve the Southern Pacific Railroad eventually trans- formed themselves into highway towns, sprouting motor courts, diners and service.stations to ply the car-borne trade. Dome, Wellton, Agua Caliente and Buckeye straddled the road between Yuma and Phoenix. As did the small crossroads settlement of Hassayampa, located just east of Buckeye. Named after the Hassayampa River, which at that point drained into the lower Gila region, Hassayampa developed around a garage operated by Osie Bates.12 It, too, bene- fited from the auto traffic along the highway.

The Ocean-to-Ocean Highway suffered from the same poor maintenance as the Old Trails Route. Upkeep of the road from Phoenix to Yuma had been shared by Maricopa and Yuma counties over the years, with predictably uneven results. In the state undertook some repairs of the highway in Yuma County and - more significantly - built a major bridge over the Gila River east of Wellton.

Comprised of fifteen 65-foot concrete deck girder spans, the Antelope Hill Bridge was one of the largest highway bridges undertaken to date by the State of Arizona.13 At the same time, the Office of Indian Affairs erected a long-span steel truss that carried the highway over the Colorado River at Yuma.14 Up to this point the state had undertaken no improvements on the eastern end of the Phoenix-Yuma Highway, as this segment of the route had become known.

In the Arizona Highway Department [AHD] commenced work on the section between Arlington and Agua Caliente "on account of this section being the worst part of the road."!S Highway department engineers were faced with a choice of courses to take: the southern route through Woolsey Park and Point of Rocks (which was then in common use), or the northern route by way of the Fourth of July Butte and Yellow Medicine Wash. As reported by Lamar Cobb: It was found that both routes presented many difficulties and disadvantages.

The southern route would have required a great deal of heavy rock work to get through Woolsey Wash and past the Point of Rocks, ft also ran for many miles through the silt bottom land of Cottonwood Wash and the Gila River - the poorest kind of material for road purposes - and the outlook for obtaining any- thing better for surfacing was very discouraging, as there was nothing suitable that would give a shorter average haul than about ten miles. There were also many large and unconfined washes to cross. The northern route ran through a somewhat rougher country and was a few miles longer, butthe material was, in the main, of a suitable character for surfacing, and there was a great deal less drainage to be looked after.

For these reasons ft was decided upon as being the one that would prove most economic eventually.16 Both courses followed the north side of the Gila, thus avoiding the need to build a costly bridge over the river. The highway department maintained the northern $ Hassayampa Bridge m HAER No. AZ-36 page 7 route over the following years, building a multiple-span concrete girder bridge over *hs Agua Fria River at Coldwater in and a timber pile bridge over the Hassayampa River at the town of Hassayampa.17 But it became increasingly evident that the better route to take would be south of the Gila River, along the original Gila Trail.

It was "demonstrated beyond question that [the northern] location was not feasible" in the wake of floods on the Gila in and which washed out a large part of the highway between Wellton and Agua Caliente.18 Moreover, the Antelope Hill Bridge had become an embarrassment to the department, washing out with almost every major flood along the river. By the highway department had decided to re-route the highway, if a suit- able crossing over the Gila could be secured [see Figrure Figure 2. Map of Phoenix-Yuma Highway, by Arizona Highway Department, The solution came from an unlikely source, in the form of a dam across the Gila, built in by Frank Gillespie.

A native of Oklahoma, Gillespie dammed the Gila River south of Buckeye to irrigate his extensive agricultural holdings.20 Unlike the two preceding diversion dams at this point, Gillespie's dam was a sub- stantial structure, comprised of a long series of concrete arches and an extensive concrete apron on its downstream side. Soon after the dam's completion, the high- way department secured the right-of-way to allow vehicles to drive across the downstream apron. When water spilling over the dam became too turbulent for cars to negotiate, the highway department chained them to a tractor and pulled long strings of vehicles across the dam in an extended train.

The dam crossing was intended as a temporary measure and was replaced in by a permanent bridge, but it provided the pivotal crossing of the Gila that allowed the highway department to reroute the Phoenix-Yuma Highway south of the river.21 3 Hassayampa Bridge m HAER No. AZ-36 page 8 The were a decade of incremental improvements on the Phoenix-Yuma Highway. AHD divided the route into relatively short segments, denoted them federal aid projects, and graded or paved the road in successive segments on either end. By the route had been designated U.S. Highway 80, part of the so-called "Broadway of America".

Graveled over most of its length, the highway was paved between Phoenix and Hassayampa, which had at the time "several stores and garages, and rooming houses where the tourist may spend the night."22 T he highway construction was relatively straightforward. It was the bridges that proved to be the Achilles heel of the highway department, as they had since territorial times. Despite its continued efforts, the highway department was unable to keep the major spans on the Phoenix-Yuma Highway - or those elsewhere in the state - serviceable.

"At present there is not a single main route through our State which is not subject to traffic tie-ups at one or more major stream crossings," stated AHD Bridge Engineer Ralph Hoffman in "Such conditions are dis- tasteful to through tourists and they will seek other routes on which they are not liable to be delayed by washouts. Our State is widely known for its good roads and millions of dollars are spent within our boundaries annually by tourists ' who travel these roads. Why not make them all-weather roads by building good substantial bridges?"23 The Colorado River Bridge at Yuma had been difficult to erect, but it had with- stood several subsequent floods without serious damage. The Antelope Hill Bridge, on the other hand, was a disaster from the start.

Ceremoniously opened to traffic in August after several construction delays, this star-crossed struc- ture began to fail almost immediately. In January floods washed away almost two miles of approach grading and enlarged the river's channel at the north end of the bridge by approximately 300 feet. To correct this, the state legislature in March appropriated to build an extension on the north end. Completed in the autumn of the bridge carried traffic until a flood a week after Thanksgiving, again destroyed the north approach and shifted some of the concrete piers on the extension. Further flooding three months later dropped about 300 more feet of trestle, the north abutment and the northernmost girder.

Worse, the flood caused several of the piers on the extension, already damaged by the previous flood, to sink fur- ther and shift downstream. "The Antelope Hill Bridge is located at a point where it is impossible to control the river and keep it under the bridge at any reasonable cost," complained State Bridge Engineer Merrill Butler in "Foundation conditions are bad and a permanent extension would necessarily be long and costly with the strong possibility that the same situation would again develop in a few years." Butler concluded, "The foregoing, together with the m Hassayampa Bridge m HAER No.

AZ-36 * page 9 apparent need for extensive repairs to two of the existing piers, should mitigate against anything except some form of temporary construction."24 Within two years, the highway department had bypassed the bridge entirely. Actually, the Antelope Hill Bridge suffered from at least three major structural flaws, which combined to make it a maintenance nightmare. First, the bridge was poorly situated on a sweep of the river that was prone to extensive flooding. Second, the piers were poorly founded on spread footings and provided with insuf- ficient scour protection.

The Gila was notorious for the deep alluvial deposits in its bed, reaching as deep as 135 feet in some locations.25 Finally, without shore rectification works to constrict and guide the river, the Gila was allowed to shift channels unchecked, putting unbearable pressure on the bridge's north spans and approaches. These problems could have been addressed during initial construction. Engineers had learned to cope with similar problems of far greater magnitude on the Missouri River forty years earlier. But the deceptively placid nature of the Gila River at normal stage did not prepare the engineers for its radical character change in flood. Only slightly less troublesome was the bridge over the Agua Fria River at Cold- water.

In the Arizona State Engineer designed the bridge with 37 concrete girder spans, supported by concrete column bents. Construction began in Decem- ber. Three months later, heavy flooding forged a new channel on the opposite side of an island about feet upriver from the bridge site. Rather than re- design the bridge to accommodate the shift in channel, the engineers continued building it as drawn, only now over a dry streambed, and attempted to re-divert the river back into its earlier bed by filling the new channel. When the bridge's west approach washed out the first winter, the state legislature appropriated for reconstruction and channel work. The newly rebuilt structure lasted until the Thanksgiving flood of when seven spans and both approaches collapsed into the river.

Subsequent floods carried away five addi- tional spans. As AHD tried to keep up with the repairs, the approaches washed away with every flood. "The location and foundation conditions are both extraor- dinarily poor," stated Butler, "but the bridge is on a main highway, a road of great economic importance, and in a section where no better site can be found within a reasonable distance."26 Like the Antelope Hill Bridge, the Coldwater Bridge was eventually abandoned by the highway department as unsalvageable. With the completion of the multiple-truss Gillespie Dam Bridge in the only other problematic crossing on the route was the bridge over the Hassayampa River at Hassayampa. Originally built as a temporary structure in the bridge here originally consisted of a series of timber piles.

In AHD added two 90-foot pony trusses onto the east end of the existing bridge, but the wood- en trestle posed continued maintenance problems. Finally, the highway depart- ment engineers gave up on salvaging it, too. In after yet another washout, AHD engineers began planning a replacement structure for the Hassayampa Bridge. ;: Hassayampa Bridge MHAERNo. AZ-36 Mpage 10 A delineated by the highway department in the new bridge would follow the same alignment as the structure it replaced [see Figure 3]. The crossing was located about a tenth of a mile east of the small town, oriented on an east-west axis at a slight skew over the river's channel. The new Hassayampa Bridge was comprised of seven concrete deck girders, supported by solid concrete piers on spread footings.

In an effort to economize on the substructural costs, AHD used the two original concrete piers and one abutment from the trusses [see Figure 4]. This dictated the span length of the girders as one-half the span of the trusses, or 45 feet, 8 inches. The overall length of the bridge was almost 320 feet; the roadway width, feet. The new concrete piers were configured identically to the existing, with two bat- tered square columns joined by a solid diaphragm to form a modified dumbbell cross-section. Each pier tapered slightly from a top width of 23 feet to 24 feet 9 inches at the bottom. Five-foot-deep spread footings supported the piers.

[See Figures 5-7 lor con- struction drawings.] Each cast-in-place span featured four concrete girders, rein- forced and formed integrally with the deck and curbs. The girders were 1 foot 5 inches wide and 3 feet 7 inches deep, witka slight angled deepening at the haunches. Each girder bore directly on the pier on its fixed end and on a 7-inch steel roller on its movable end. The four-rib girder design was a standard AHD configuration, used for variously scaled bridges across the state in the Wi Figure 3. i te Pton of Hassavamoa Bridge, by Arizona Highway Department, and The visual effect of the new Hassayampa Bridge was one of straight-angled sim- plicity.

The plainly detailed piers and relatively shallow girders provided little sense of the bridge's structural capacity and were, indeed, not visible to vehicles crossing over the bridge. The slotted concrete guardrails - another AHD stan dard detail - provided the structure's only architectural expression. Although comprised of more spans than most concrete girder spans undertaken by AHD at the time, the bridge was modestly sized, consuming slightly under cubic yards of concrete and pounds of reinforcing steel. Hassayampa Bridge HAER No. AZ-36 page ii 5 i . r s * \ hjfir I'rfr' %&> h&- \>& U^ %&> " - "~ - *- . , i t MI-> ^ PL -*f ^, _ IMMIflM ^OUTMtHT 0,* i-'-ffliiir* - ' Figure 4.

Profile of the new Hassayampa Bridge by Arizona Highway Department, The highway department combined in state funds with in fed- eral funds, designating construction of the new Hassayampa Bridge Federal Aid Project 71 - Reopened.28 The department solicited competitive proposals for the project in October and opened the bids on November 26. Four firms proposed to build the bridge: Martin of Tucson, the Levy Construction Company of Denver, the Wickes Engineering and Construction Company of Des Moines, and Strong and Grant of Springville, Utah. Low bidder at Strong and Grant was awarded the contract.29 The contractors were slow in starting, only beginning the work in February By April the bridge was 30% complete, 80% by the first of June.

On June 30, - the contract dead- line - Strong and Grant completed the bridge at a total cost of The new Hassayampa Bridge was quietly put into service at that time. Completion of the Hassayampa Bridge marked the elimination of the last major stumbling block on the Phoenix-Yuma Highway. It was not until it and the Coldwater Bridge were replaced in the late that the route could honestly be called an all-weather highway. Route 80 functioned as the main line between the two cities through the carrying the greatest traffic load of any highway in the state.

Eventually it was superseded by Interstate Highway 10, and the part of the route that included Hassayampa was turned over by the Arizona Highway Department to Maricopa County in October The route was later re-admitted into the primary system when construction temporarily closed the interstate, but in September the Hassayampa Bridge was per- manently abandoned to the county, for use as a county structure.32 During its 64 years of service, the bridge has carried heavy interstate traffic, with the partial replacement of one guardrail the only alteration of note. The Maricopa County Department of Transportation has proposed the replacement of the Hassa- yampa Bridge. Construction is underway on the new structure; the historic con- crete span will be demolished in H Hassayampa Bridge m HAER No.

AZ-36 page 12 T he development of the Phoenix-Yuma Highway was, from the start, characterized by extensive re-routings, wildly uneven maintenance and repeated bridge failures, because its planning, construction and maintenance had been dictated by expedi- ency. In this, it is emblematic of early road and bridge construction throughout Arizona. Chronically short of funds, the governments of the counties, Arizona Territory and the State of Arizona have historically been forced to defer long-term planning for immediate construction and repair. Nowhere was this more apparent than at the state's major bridges. The early engineers avoided building bridges when they could, and when they could not, they often eschewed permanency for low initial construction costs.

In a Arizona Highways article notable for its apologetic tone, AHD Bridge Engineer Ralph Hoffman explained the recent failures of the Coldwater and Hassayampa bridges and others: The fautt [for bridge failures] cannot be laid at the door of the engineer, al- though he is not infallible, he can only go as far as the funds provided will per- mit. The State spends millions to build surfaced roads making them passable in all kinds of weather and leaves an unprotected gap here and there for the reason that the engineer is trying to make his money cover as much mileage as possible.33 Through its various permutations, the Hassayampa Bridge exemplifies early Ari- zona bridge construction.

Built originally as a stopgap measure, it carried traffic long after its status as a temporary structure had lapsed. The later steel trusses prolonged the bridge's utility, but the structure was still prey to washouts. Final- ly, when state highway engineers were prompted to replace the original bridge entirely, they used a standard concrete design, at last building a structure that could be considered permanent. The Hassayampa Bridge is significant as an integral part of U.S. Highway 80, arguably the state's most important east-west route. The bridge's completion in eliminated the last major obstacle to foul-weather driving on the route through Arizona.

The bridge is illustrative for its use of the concrete girder - a standard structural type in Arizona in the and With its seven 45- foot girder spans, the Hassayampa Bridge represents one of the more noteworthy examples of its type. Though not as dramatic in its configuration as the Navajo Bridge, built over the Grand Canyon at the same time, or as spectacular in its failures as the Antelope Hill Bridge or the Coldwater Bridge, the Hassayampa Bridge is an important early Arizona transportation-related resource. m Hassayampa Bridge m HAER No. AZ-36 page 13 m Figure 5. Layout MOD, Profile and Pier Details of the HassayamDa Bridge, Dy Arizona Highway Department, Hassayampa Bridge m HAER No. AZ-36 * page 14 Figure 6.

'.: Abutment for A Girder Deck of the Hassavamoa Bridge, bv Ari2ona Highway Department. m Hassayampa Bridge m HAER No. AZ-36 i U page 15 W -ifi M Figure 7. Details of - & Girder Deck, 24 Ft Roadway of the Hassayamca Bridge, by Arizona Highway DeDartment, Hassayampa Bridge HAER NO. AZ-36 page 16 Endnotes 1 This HAER documentation draws upon the state wide inventory of highway bridges for background information. For more on bridge construction in Arizona, see: Clayton B.

Fraser, "Arizona Bridge Inventory," prepared for the Arizona Department of Transportation, October 2 Marshall Trimble, Roadside History of Arizona (Missoula, Montana: Mountain Press Publishing Company, pages 3 Howell Granger, X Marks the Place: Historical Names of Places in Arizona (Tucson, Arizona: Falconer Publishing Company, pages 93; Marshall Trimble, Arizona: A Panoramic History of a Frontier State (Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Company, pages 4 See Karen Smith, The Magnificent Experiment: Building- the Salt River Reclamation Project, (Tucson, Arizona: University of Arizona Press, pages for more on Swilling's early activities. 5 See Donald C. Jackson, "Theodore Roosevelt Dam," HAER No. AZ-6, June for more on the early development of Arizona's Salt River Valley.

6 Arizona State Highway Department, "History of the Arizona State Highway Department," unpublished manuscript, located at the Arizona State Library, Phoenix, Arizona. 1 Report of the State Engineer of the State of Arizona: July 1, to June 30, (Phoenix: Arizona State Press, page 5. 8 Arizona State Highway Department, "History of the Arizona Highway Department." ^Report of the State Engineer of the State of Arizona, page 5. I0 Ibid., pages n As quoted in Ouinta Scott and Susan Croce Kelly, Route 66: The Highway and Its People (Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, pages 12 Will C. Barnes, Arizona Place Names {Tucson, Arizona: University of Arizona Press, I960), page Howell Granger, XMarks the Spot: His- torical Names of Places in Arizona, page w Hassayampa Bridge ilHAER No.

AZ-36 mpage 17 l3 Report of the State Engineer of Arizona, pages 69, 94, Second Report of the State Engineer to the State Highway Commission, (Phoenix: The McNeil Company, pages 69, 94, Yuma Sun, 10 April 3 June 3 September 17 September 22 October 29 October 14 For more on the Yuma Bridge, see U.S. Department of the Interior, Office of Indian Affairs, "Proposed Highway Bridge over Colorado River at Yuma, Arizona," original construction drawings dated April located at the Struc- tures Section, Arizona Department of Transportation, Phoenix, Arizona; and John W. Towle, "The Erection of the Yuma, Arizona, Bridge over the Colorado River," Arizona Highways, July pages 15 Second Report of the State Engineer to the State Highway Commis- sion, page i6 Ibid.

17 The Coldwater Bridge served to illustrate the travails of bridge build- ing in Arizona, as reported in by State Engineer Atwood: The location survey of the bridge site was made originally in Active construction operations began in December, During the latter part of the same month, the first in a series of unprecedented floods, extending over a period of three months, stopped ail construction work and little was done until about April, The deposit of fine sands and sitt several feet deep over the entire river bed. one mile wide, and the excess of water handled In all subsequent excavation, necessarily increased the unit cost in handling mater- ial and excavation for foundations.

The bridge was finished and opened for traffic in December, at a completed cost for the bridge proper of During the winter of the excessive flood waters washed out the approach on the west end of the bridge... Another very heavy flood came during the summer rainy season. The crest of the flood over-topped the approach fill to the west of the bridge and soon raveled out the embank- ment. It is believed that had the fill been carried out to the same elevation as the bridge deck the approach would have resisted the action of the flood. Early in title was acquired by the State Engineer for a right-of-way for a distance of one-half mile above the bridge.

The old river bed has been cleared of timber and debris and channel excavations will be made sufficient to divert again the waters of the Agua Fria under the bridge. Under an agree- ment entered into with the Board of Supervisors of Maricopa Country, the ap- proach will be rebuilt to the same grade as the bridge deck and further stream protection work done above the bridge. It is believed when this work is done no further trouble will be experienced at this point so long as the chan- nel is kept cleared of growing timber, and the grade of the approaches main- tained to the elevation of the bridge floor. Hassayampa Bridge HAER No.

A.Z-36 page 18 Third Biennial Report of the State Engineer to the Governor and the Commission of State Institutions (Phoenix: Arizona State Press, pages ia Fourth Biennial Report of the State Engineer to the Governor oi the State of Arizona, (Phoenix: Republican Print Shop, page 56. 19 The Fourth Biennial Report of the State Engineer (page 78) stated: The survey for a complete highway from Phoenix to Yuma has been made. In view of the floods in the winter of and the desire of the Yuma High- way Commission to connect with both Phoenix and AJo. also in realization of the necessity for a highway from the Capital of the State to Ajo.

this survey was run on the south side of the Gila River from Yuma to Gila Bend, thence in a northerly direction through the area proposed to be irrigated from the Gil- lespie Dam. now under construction, and thence to Arlington.

20 Howell Granger, X Marks the Place, page 21 For more information on the Gillespie Dam Bridge, see "Arizona's Lar- gest Steel Highway Bridge," Arizona Highways, December page 6; Gila River Bridge near Gillespie Dam, Important Link on Phoenix-Yuma Highway, Open to Traffic," Arizona Highways, October pages "Seventeen Hundred Foot Bridge over the Gila near Gillespie Dam is Opened for Use," Ari- zona Republican, 1 August and "New State Bridge over Gila River," Ari- zona Republican, 2 August 22 "From Yuma to Phoenix Over Good Roads," Arizona Highways, April pages 23 Ralph A. Hoffman, "Lack of Finances Held Responsible for Washing Away of Bridges in Flood Times," Arizona Highways, January page 10. 2 *Fourth Biennial Report of the State Engineer, pages 2S Ralph A.

Hoffman, "Lack of Finances Held Responsible for Washing Away of Bridges in Flood Times," pages 26 Ibid., page 67. 27 Ralph A. Hoffman, "Bridge Department Designs All Structures," Ari- zona Highways, July pages 28 "Arizona's Greatest Highway Program Provided for in Budget of for Construction and Betterment," Arizona Highways, October page 8. sr Hassayampa Bridge m HAER No. AZ-36 mpage 19 29 "Contract Awarded," Arizona Highways, December page 12; see also, Proceedings of the Arizona State Highway Commission, 26 November located at the Arizona Department of Transportation, Phoenix, Arizona. The bids were each subdivided into 11 components, listed below: Item Quantity Description Bidder Martin Strong ! Grant Levy Conet Co. WiekMEng.

1 100 square yards Concrete paving 2 164 cubic yards Borrow (inside abutments) 3 573 cubic yards Borrow (outside abutments) 4 940 cubic yards Excavation 00 5 24 cubic yards Class *AA" concrete 6 cubic yards Class 'A' concrete 7 pounds Reinforcing steel 7,2aa.25 a 28 Roller bridge seats 9 102 cubic yards Remove old concrete 10 Dismantling and piling steel it Removing and salvaging pile trestle Total Bid 53.6U.45 30 "The Engineer's Log," Arizona Highways, February page 29. 31 "County Road Plat," dated 16 October by Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, located at the Maricopa County Department of Transpor- tation, Phoenix, Arizona. 32 File memo from Bruesch, dated 16 February located at the Structures Section, Arizona Department of Transportation, Phoenix, Arizona.

^alph Hoffman, "Lack of Finances Held Responsible for Washing Away of Bridges in Flood Times," pages This lack of funding was exacerbated by an unfriendly state legislature in the mid-1920s, as reported by Lamar Cobb, "Arizona Highway Department," Arizona Highways, April pages 10- 11: Political bickering [in early resulting in a loss of public confidence, brought the financial condition of the [highway] department to a desperate pass. The bill under which the department operated at that time was drawn with the idea of tieing [sic] its hands in every possible way. The legislature of failed to make adequate appropriation for carrying on the road work. In fact it was threatened that with the exception of maintenance the activity of the department would cease.

The Eighth Legislature which convened in was even more hostile than tts immediate predecessor and no relief was afforded the needs of the department, the result that for several months it was practically closed down. All work was stopped and a tremendous economic loss resulted. The legislature then created the present Arizona State Highway Commission, consisting of five members... If nothing else could be said on behalf of the highway commission, by removing the department from politics it relived the future heads of the department from the storm of partisan villitl- cation and abuse which had assailed those of the past. m Hassayampa Bridge ^HAERNO. AZ-36 page 20 Bibliography Arizona Highway Department.

"History of the Arizona Highway Department." Unpublished manuscript, Arizona Highway Department. "Phoenix-Yuma Highway: Hassayampa Bridge." Construction drawings, Located at Structures Section, Arizona De- partment of Transportation, Phoenix, Arizona. "Arizona Routes Will Be Marked with United States Road Signs." Arizona High- ways, August page 6. Arizona State Highway Commission Proceedings. Located at Arizona Department of Transportation, Phoenix, Arizona. "Arizona's Greatest Highway Program Provided for in Budget of for Construction and Betterment." Arizona Highways, October page 8. "Arizona's Largest Steel Highway Bridge." Arizona Highways, December page 6. Barnes, Will C. Arizona Place Names.

Tucson, Arizona: University of Arizona Press, "Broadway Route Brings Business to Border City." Tombstone Epitaph, 12 Octo- ber Cobb, Lamar. "Arizona Highway Department." Arizona Highways, April pages "Contract Awarded." Arizona Highways, December page 12. County Road Plat. By Maricopa County Board of Supervisors. 16 October "The Engineer's Log." Arizona Highways, February page 29; April page 28; June page 28; July page 19. Filth Biennial Report of the State Engineer to the Governor of the State of Arizona. Fourth Biennial Report of the State Engineer to the Governor of the State of Ari- zona. Phoenix: Republican Print Shop, Fraser, Clayton B.

"Arizona Bridge Inventory." Report for Arizona Department of Transportation, s Hassayampa Bridge HHAERNo.AZ-36 * page 21 "From Yuma to Phoenix Over Good Roads." Arizona Highways, April pages Gardner, A.H. "Vast Bridged and Paved Network of Highways for Arizona Seen by Good Roads Booster." Arizona Highways, October "Gila River Bridge near Gillespie Dam, Important Link on Phoenix-Yuma High- way, Open to Traffic." Arizona Highways, October pages Granger, ByrdHowell. XMarks the Place: Historical Names of Places in Arizona. Tucson, Arizona: Falconer Publishing Company, "Highway Program Opens." Arizona Daily Star, 8 June Hoffman, Ralph A. "Bridge Department Designs All Structures." Arizona High- ways, July pages .

"Lack of Finances Held Responsible for Washing Away of Bridges in Flood Times." Arizona Highways, January pages Jackson, Donald C. "Theodore Roosevelt Dam." Historic American Engineering Record No. AZ-6, Maricopa County Board of Supervisors' Record: Located at the Maricopa County Courthouse, Phoenix, Arizona. McClintock, James H. "The Genesis of Arizona Highways." Arizona Highways, June pages 1, 17. McKeever, "Road Building in Retrospect." Arizona Highways, April page 12, 15. "New State Bridge over Gila River." Arizona [Phoenix] Republican, 2 August Report of the State Engineer of the State of Arizona: July 1, to June 30, Phoenix: Arizona State Press, Scott, Ouinta, and Kelly, Susan Croce. Route 66: The Highway and Its People.

Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, Second Report of the State Engineer to the State Highway Commission. Phoenix: The McNeil Company, "Seventeen Hundred Foot Bridge over the Gila near Gillespie Dam is Opened for Use." Arizona [Phoenix] Republican, 1 August 3 Hassayampa Bridge m HAER No. AZ-36 SI page 22 Seventh Biennial Report of the State Engineer to the Governor of the State oi Arizona. Phoenix: Kelly Print, Sixth Biennial Report of the State Engineer to the Governor of the State of Ari- zona. Phoenix: Manufacturing Stationers, Inc., Smith, Karen. The Magnificent Experiment: Building the Salt River Reclamation Project.

Tucson, Arizona: University of Arizona Press, Structure Inventory and Appraisal Records, Hassayampa Bridge (Structure Num- ber Located at Maricopa County Department of Transportation, Phoenix, Arizona "Superhighway Route Through State Outlined." Arizona [Phoenixl Republican, 13 October Taylor, A.C. "Arizona Good Roads Association Gets Plan of State Engineer for Fifteen-Year Highway Program." Arizona Highways, February page 20. Third Biennial Re oort of the State Engineer to the Governor and the Commission of the State fnstitutions. Phoenix: Arizona State Press, Towle, John W. "The Erection of the Yuma, Arizona, Bridge Over the Colorado River." Arizona Highways, July pages Trimble, Marshall. Arizona: A Panoramic History of a Frontier State. Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Company, ..

Roadside History of Arizona. Missoula, Montana: Mountain Press Publishing Company., Wallis, Michael. Route 66: The Mother Road. New York, New York: St. Martin's Press, "Yuma Highway Completion Opens Fast Traffic Route." Arizona Highways, July pages Hassayampa Bridge ^HAERNo. AZ-36 31 page 23 i& Figure 8. Location Map of Bridge (Hassayamoa, Arizona. USGS Quadrangle Map: Th Minute Series.