Route 66 Crossings: Historic Bridges of the Mother RoadRoute 66 is a beloved and much studied symbol of twentieth-century America. But until now, no book has focused on the bridges that spanned the rivers, creeks, arroyos, and railroads between Chicago and Santa Monica. In this handsome volume, Route 66 authority and veteran writer and photographer Jim Ross examines the origins and history of the bridges of America’s most famous highway, structures designed to overcome obstacles to travel, many of them engineered with architectural aesthetics now lost to time. Featuring hundreds of Ross's own photographs, Route 66 Crossings showcases bridges ranging in design from timber to steel and concrete, and provides schematics, maps, and global coordinates to help readers identify and locate them. Ross’s comprehensive accounting of structures along the Mother Road’s various alignments includes bridges still in use, those that have vanished or have been abandoned, and the few consciously preserved as monuments. He also recognizes ancillary structures that enhanced safety and helped facilitate traffic, such as railway grade separations, tunnels, and pedestrian underpasses. Ross seeks to encourage ongoing preservation of the structures that remain. In brilliant color and precise detail, Route 66 Crossings expands our knowledge of the bridges that linked America’s first all-weather national highway. |
Contents
Bearing the Load | 1 |
Exiled | 81 |
Crossed Over | 115 |
Afterlife | 141 |
Supporting Cast | 151 |
Bridge Hunting | 165 |
Surviving Bridges by Type | 171 |
| 179 | |
Common terms and phrases
abandoned added alignment Angeles approach Arch bridge Arizona Arroyo Seco Avenue built bypassed California Camelback Canyon carried Center chapter City closed Collection completed Concrete Deck Girder Concrete Girder Concrete Slab construction contains continues Creek Bridge crossed Culvert curve early east eastbound existing Exit Figueroa followed former four four-lane Girder bridge guardrails highway Historic Illinois Kansas known lanes later Line Little Louis Mexico miles Missouri National Register Oklahoma once original Parkway Pasadena passes path pathway paved pedestrian pictured Places plaque Pratt Through Truss Project railroad remains replaced River river bridge Road roadway Route 66 route’s Santa Fe side single-span Spandrel spans Spring Springfield Steel Beam Steel Girder Steel Stringer Street stretch structures three-span Timber Timber Stringer today’s traffic trestle Truss Bridge tunnels two-lane Underpass upgrade viaduct visible Wash westbound