Colorado Street Bridge

Waddell and Harrington of Kansas City, Missouri, designed the Colorado Street Bridge in 1912, and J.D.Mercereau Construction of Los Angeles served as contractor. It was dedicated and opened to traffic on December 13, 1913. Designed as a series of large parabolic arches, the structure includes five spans of 133 feet at the base, one span of 114 feet, and one span of 233 feet, with six small girder spans in the form of arches and abutments at each end. Beneath it, between piers 9 and 10, the Parker-Mayberry Bridge, a smaller three-span arch concrete structure, was built in 1914 to accommodate local traffic across the Arroyo Seco. The bridge was the first street level crossing linking Pasadena and Los Angeles and was part of the transcontinental highway system known as the National Old Trails route. It was designated a Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the Los Angeles section of the American Society of Civil Engineers in 1975, a Cultural Heritage Landmark of the City of Pasadena in 1979, and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places by the National Park Service in 1981.

Pasadena, California · United States