California Powder Works Bridge - Santa Cruz County, California - U.S. National Register of Historic Places on Waymarking.com

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.
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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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