By the early 1930s, growing automobile use had sharply increased roadway traffic, and in Sacramento, M Street, now Capital Mall, had become a major link to U.S. Highway 40, now West Capital Avenue and State Route 275. The Sacramento Northern Railroad Bridge, directly north of the present Tower Bridge, could carry vehicles but had reached its automobile capacity by 1933, leading the state to recognize the need for a new crossing at M Street. During the Great Depression, New Deal infrastructure programs provided funding through a joint effort of Sacramento and Yolo Counties, the State of California, and the Federal Civil Works program, and in early 1934 the California Division of Highways Bridge Department and the state’s Division of Architecture began planning the new bridge. Fred W. Panhorst and George Thompson served as structural engineers, and Alfred Eichler designed the vertical-lift bridge in the Streamline Moderne style, with a rail line in the center of the deck, two automobile lanes on either side, and pedestrian walkways. George Pollock & Company dismantled the old M Street Bridge and built the new structure in the summer of 1934, employing an average of 130 workers over 16 months. Spanning 737 feet, with a 209-foot vertical-lift section that rises nearly 100 feet above the Sacramento River, the Tower Bridge was the first vertical-lift span bridge on the California highway system, and its deck and sidewalks used experimental lightweight concrete later used in the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. Named for its streamlined towers, it was designed with portals that created a welcoming gateway to Sacramento and the State Capitol, opened to traffic on December 15, 1935, at a cost of $994,000, was recognized in 1936 by the American Institute of Steel Construction as “The Most Beautiful Bridge,” and in 1982 was listed in the National Register of Historic Places for significance in architecture, engineering, and transportation.