Hospital Bridge - Downieville, CA - Truss Bridges on Waymarking.com

The following information from California State Parks Office of Historic Preservation files:

The Hospital Bridge, also known as the Downieville Steel Bridge was built in 1908 across the Downie River near its confluence with Pauley Creek. The Hospital Bridge is a 100 foot long through Pratt truss bridge spanning the Downie River east-west between Upper Main Street and Lavazzola Road. The bridge is constructed of riveted steel box members connected with lacing bars. The lower chords and stringers are steel I-beams. The top chords are C-channel members held together with lacing bars and topped by flat sheet steel. The end posts are C-channel members held together with lacing bars and topped by flat sheet steel. Verticals are C-channel held together with lacing bars, except for the outermost verticals, which have a base of C- channel members held together with lacing bars, topped by two steel rods attached with pins to the C-channels and the connection between the end posts and top chords. Struts are L-shaped structural steel. Top and bottom lateral bracing is flat structural steel, and each diagonal consists of two flat structural steel bars. The center two trusses have cross-diagonal members of steel rods connected via turnbuckles. Additional steel rods and steel bars are connected horizontally parallel to the lower chord, via large bolts at the base of each vertical, providing a common connection point for verticals and diagonals, mounted atop each floor beam by a U-shaped bolt and sections of C-channel. The roadway deck is wooden, with a lower layer of beams tangent to the road surface and two rows of four wooden beams parallel with the road surface. Guardrails consisting of two steel L-girders attached with interlaced lacing bars are located on either side of the bridge roadway, with chain-link fence affixed in front of the guardrails on either side of the roadway. The bridge is supported by board-formed concrete abutments on either side. The remains of earlier bridge abutments, consisting of irregular stone secured in place with concrete mortar, is visible behind the bridge abutments along the canyon wall. A water pipe runs along the southern side of the bridge, attached to the floor beams.

In 1937, Downieville had a total of five bridges. The easternmost (and farthest upstream on the Downie River) was the Hospital Bridge, originally called the Downieville Steel Bridge (due to its status as the town’s first steel truss bridge) constructed in 1908. Next was the Hansen Bridge, a Pratt pony truss bridge completed in 1936. Third was a concrete arch bridge constructed by the State of California to carry traffic on Highway 49. Just downstream of the highway bridge was the Jersey Bridge, a wooden bridge constructed in 1875, and the Durgan Bridge, just downstream of where the Downie River met the Yuba, constructed in 1881. Except for the highway bridge, all were constructed as single-lane bridges by the county government.

On December 10, 1937, major storms sent a torrent of water through Downieville destroying the State Highway bridge, the Jersey Bridge, and the Durgan Bridge. The Sierra County officials replaced the Jersey and Durgan bridges and repaired the Hanson Bridge in 1938. The Hospital Bridge was undamaged and continued in use until 1980 when it was replaced with a 2 lane concrete bridge that could haul heavy logging trucks.