14th Street Viaduct - Denver, CO - Colorado Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

This unremarkable monument is has sadly been vandalized with an etching removed. The plaque explains the structural and economic importance of the 14th Street Viaduct; all the remains of the old viaduct is the iron railing adjacent to the monument. The plaque reads as follows:

14th Street Viaduct

The first of the great iron/steel viaducts in Denver was the 23rd street viaduct erected in 1887. This was followed in 1889 by the 16th Street and Larimer Street viaducts, and the 14th Street viaduct in 1898. The 14th Street viaduct, torn down in 1988, was the last of those multiple-span wagon/tram viaducts built in Denver in the 19th century, before the introduction of the automobile in Colorado.

In March 1895, the Denver City Council passed an ordinance creating the 14th Street Viaduct Improvement District whose purpose it was to raise funds for a major steel viaduct over the railroads streets and the South Platte River. This project was a joint effort between the City of Denver and what was then known as the City of Highlands.

The Denver City Engineers designed the 63-span, 1467-foot long trestle and the Youngstown Bridge Company of Youngstown, Ohio was awarded the contract for the superstructure. Construction of the viaduct began in 1895 and was completed in 1898 at a total cost of around $367,000.

In 1939, the bridge was widened by the addition of cantilevers on both sides. But remained in largely unaltered condition until it was demolished. The decorative cast iron railing you see before you was taken from the viaduct when it was replaced in 1988.