
Historic Tanner's Crossing Bridge - Cameron, AZ
Posted by:
DopeyDuck
N 35° 52.570 W 111° 24.725
12S E 462801 N 3970292
This suspension bridge was built in 1911 by the Midland Bridge Co. for the Office of Indian Affairs. It is also a Natl Historic Place. The one-lane bridge is closed to vehicles now, but appears to carry an oil pipeline.
Waymark Code: WM4TW8
Location: Arizona, United States
Date Posted: 09/29/2008
Views: 59
In 1911, a sway-back, one-track suspension bridge was erected over a gorge of the Little Colorado on the edge of Navajo and Hopi country. Hubert and C.D. Richardson built a small trading post there in 1916.
Designer - Midland Steel Co.
Location - Cameron, Arizona, USA
Date - 1911
Building Type - Transportation
Construction System - Concrete, Steel, Aluminum
Architectural Style - Suspension-truss hybrid
Street Address - Carries US 89 over the Little Colorado River
Notes - also known as Cameron Bridge;Little Colorado River Bridge
Information from "The Rough Guide to the Grand Canyon" By Greg Ward, Rough Guides
Cameron
The Mormon Trail originally crossed the Little Colorado River at a rocky ford six miles upstream. That became known as Tanner’s Crossing, in honor of Seth Tanner, a Mormon prospector from Tuba City who built a house nearby in the 1870’s. He later expanded his operations into the Grand Canyon area, where he also gave his name to the Tanner Trail.
After the danger from quicksand and flooding at Tanner’s Crossing led to the construction of the first suspension bridge across the gorge in 1911, Cameron – named for another legendary canyon prospector, Ralph Cameron – sprang into being on the south side of the span. That one-lane bridge is still there, but now it only carries an oil pipeline, having been superseded by a broader modern highway bridge.
Cameron Trading Post
The over-expanding Cameron Trading Post, clustered beside the two bridge, remains at heart what it started out as in 1916 – a trading venter for the Navajo Nation. Reservation residents still flock in to stock up on wool, flour and other supplies, catch up with friends, fill up their gas tanks, and pick up their mail, and much of the trading post’s business is still conducted by barter.
AZ Historical Plaque States
Cameron
(Orinally Tanner's Crossing)
Named for one of Arizona's first U.S. Senators. A pioneer in development of trails and copper mines in Grand Canyon. Near here was the site of Tanner's Crossing of the Little Colorado River on The Mormon Trail from Utah via Lee Ferry to settlements in Arizona and Mexico.
Arizona Development Board
Arizona Highway Department
1964
Useful Websites:
http://www.nationalregisterofhistoricplaces.com/AZ/Coconino/state.html
http://www.bridgemeister.com/pic.php?pid=1939
Original Use: Vehicle - Car / Truck
 Date Built: 1911
 Construction: Steel
 Condition: Good
 See this website for more information: [Web Link]
 Date Abandoned: Don't know
 Bridge Status - Orphaned or Adopted.: Orphaned

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