Several questions about my background photo have come in. I took the photo last Monday, from a dirt road that goes up the canyon behind Bixby Bridge. This is a short history of the Central Coast's Bixby Creek Bridge. No doubt you have seen it in a least one commercial at sometime or other. It is striking in pictures, but awe inspiring in person.--John
Bixby Creek Bridge
This essay was written as a class assignment in SBSC 326: History of the Monterey Bay Area, 10,000 B.C. to Steinbeck, California State University Monterey Bay, Spring Semester 1996; Dr. Gary S. Breschini, instructor.
Eighteen miles south of Carmel stands one of the world's highest single-span concrete arch bridges. Its beauty is matched only by the ocean waves crashing on the rocky coastline below. Reaching over 260 feet high and over 700 feet long, it's a structural masterpiece, and probably the most photographed object along the coastal route.
Bixby Creek Cridge during construction. Courtesy of the Pat Hathaway Collection (which includes 120 construction photographs of the bridge; image 74-24-03).
After exhaustive engineering studies, two options remained to solve the Bixby Creek crossing on what was then called Route 56, or Carmel-San Simeon Highway, now known as Highway 1. The deep V-shaped canyon, about 100 feet wide at the bottom, with slopes consisting of altered and disintegrated granite, imposed special and difficult problems for the California Division of Highways. One option was an 890-foot tunnel and a 250-foot bridge upstream from the mouth of the creek. The other option was to build a high bridge right on the coast spanning the bluffs. Concerns of safety, and allowing more scenic views, brought the final decision to the latter plan. (The author does not state in her article, other local histories of the Bridge says this was a WPA project to help recover from the Great Depression--John)
The contract was awarded to the low bidder, Ward Engineering Co. of San Francisco, on August 13th, 1931, for $202,334. Concrete placing began November 27th. The bridge was completed on October 15, 1932, and ceremoniously dedicated on November 27th. Another five years would pass before the highway, extending 30 miles from the Carmel River to San Luis Obispo, was finished.
The amount of material used in the construction was enormous: 300,000 feet of timber were used in the falsework, 4,700 cubic yards of earth and rock had to be excavated, and 45,000 sacks of cement were used. The means of transporting the materials across the canyon came from platforms and slings suspended from a cable 300 feet above the creek. Cement was chosen instead of steel due to material and maintenance costs. The cement came from Davenport, near Santa Cruz, and from San Andreas. The creek below supplied the needed water for the mix.
(Rainbow Bridge is one of many names Bixby Bridge has been called by--John)
The falsework, which was the wooden structure built to shape the arch and form the wet concrete, was one of the outstanding accomplishments of E.C. Panton, the general superintendent of Ward Engineering Co. Credit also went to C.H. Purcell, California state highway engineer, F.W. Panhorst, acting bridge engineer, and I.O. Jahlstrom, resident engineer. Two months were spent building the falsework alone. One of the main difficulties was raising and holding the arch frame, exposed as it was to the high winds. The foundation also had to resist the waves which at times reached its base. Work was halted for a time until the dangers of winter storms passed. Locals also wanted it known that M.J. Murphy, Inc. of Carmel was one of the sub-contractors involved in the construction. Large advertisements were placed in The Herald honoring Murphy's contribution. Its trucks were used to haul the Douglas fir from the railroad yards in Monterey to the bridge site and the company also supplied sand and gravel for the concrete from a plant in Big Sur. The road at the time was one-way with hairpin turns, making trips very dangerous for the drivers of large trucks.
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360 Friend THEY CALL ME BOOG (there must be some story behind that name!!) raised a question that I had also, in such a time and with such a huge construction project was anyone killed during it. At the back of my mind I thought some had, but could not find a reference. Then I dug through my books and found perhaps an answer, and an interesting side story too. Randall A. Reinstedt is a local historian and author, he has numerous books about the folk tales, ghost tale, shipwrecks, and lost treasure stories of our area. GHOSTS OF THE BIG SUR COAST is one on his books. On pages 34 and 45 (a picture section is in between) are mentioned the following:
. . . the tragedy of a construction worker who is said to have fallen into the concrete pour during the building of the bridge's north column. . .
I have heard rumors that a Navy pilot flew a plane under the bridge on a dare, but never found anything to substantiate it. But Mr. Reinstedt has the following in the same book mentioned above about a local pilot:
. . .the day after the official opening of the Carmel to Cambria coast highway in 1937. Al Geer, a local resident and pilot, decided to try flying a plane under the bridge's graceful arch! Approaching the bridge from the landward side, he zoomed beneath the span and out over the water. . .
If you are interested in stories and history of our beautiful part of the Central Coast, or perhaps want to try your hand at finding some of the lost treasures that are said to still be hidden around here, Mr. Reinstedt's books can be found at:
Take good care, Enjoy, John
I chose Copland's FANFARE FOR THE COMMON MAN in honor of the common men who did uncommon work to build the Bixby Creek Bridge.
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