Located within the Peter Skene Ogden State Park and Wayside are a number of interpretive displays and plaques highlighting the Crooked River (High) Bridge, built in 1926 as well as the replacement bridge, dedicated as the Rex Barber Veterans Memorial Bridge in 2003. There is an interpretive display that highlights this 'millennium bridge' which reads:
A Bridge for the New Millennium
Throughout the 20th century, traffic increased dramatically on U.S. Highway 97 - from a few vehicles per day in the 1920s to over 8,000 by the 1990s! After 70 years, the Crooked River (High) Bridge (1926), though still structurally sound, was unable to accommodate the needs of the new millennium.
The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) began planning a new crossing of the Crooked River Gorge in the late 1990s. To honor the tradition of bridge crossings over the Crooked River Gorge, it was important for this new bridge to complement the older bridges. David Goodyear, award-winning bridge engineer, was contracted to design the new structure - a concrete deck arch bridge, 535 feet long (almost 100 feet longer than its predecessors). 79 feet wide, and 295 feet high.
The new Crooked River Bridge is the first major cast-in-place segmental concrete arch bridge in the United States. Construction began November 1997, and the bridge opened to public on September 16, 2000.