California Powder Works Bridge - Santa Cruz County, California
Posted by: DougK
N 37° 00.628 W 122° 02.635
10S E 585057 N 4096460
The Powder Works Bridge stands out as one of the best surviving examples of a Smith truss bridge in the United States.
Waymark Code: WMNQ8A
Location: California, United States
Date Posted: 04/17/2015
Views: 4
From the Nomination form:
Powder Works Bridge is an outstanding example of nineteenth-century covered bridge construction. Built in 1872, the bridge is historically significant as an essential component of the California Powder Works, which was the first black powder mill on the West Coast. It is an excellent example of a Smith truss, a nationally- significant timber bridge type, of which only twenty-three historic examples survive.
Powder Works Bridge is highly significant as the last remnant of Smith Bridge Company operations on the West Coast, which represent the last effort to market timber bridges on a national scale.
Patented by Ohio native Robert W. Smith in 1867, the Smith truss had all diagonal truss web members; it was light, strong, and efficient; and for a short time, it
allowed wood bridges to successfully compete with iron bridges as an industrial product.
…
Powder Works Bridge is an impressive and well-maintained timber Smith through truss covered bridge.3 Overall, the superstructure is 180 feet long (including the portal overhangs), 28 feet deep (including the roof), and 30 feet wide (including the roof overhangs), with a clear span length of 163’-0” and a roadway width of 19’-3”. The Douglas fir trusses are fourteen panels long, each panel measuring approximately 11’-3” wide, except the two center panels, which are 8’-10” wide.
From the NHL announcement:
Constructed in 1872, this covered bridge is one of the most outstanding surviving examples of a Smith Truss, a nationally significant timber truss type developed and patented in 1867 by Robert W. Smith in Toledo, Ohio. This truss type features diagonal truss web members that resulted in a light, strong, and efficient design whose components could be mass-produced at a factory and shipped to distant sites.
Nearby Plaque on Monument
Street address: Keystone Way Santa Cruz, California USA
County / Borough / Parish: Santa Cruz
Year listed: 2015
Historic (Areas of) Significance: Transportation Engineering
Periods of significance: 1872
Historic function: Transportation / road-related (vehicular bridge)
Current function: Transportation / road-related (vehicular bridge)
Privately owned?: yes
Primary Web Site: [Web Link]
Secondary Website 1: [Web Link]
National Historic Landmark Link: [Web Link]
Season start / Season finish: Not listed
Hours of operation: Not listed
Secondary Website 2: Not listed
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