Pioneering Grand Canyon Bridge Nabs ASCE Award
Emily Pollock posted on March 01, 2019 |
Don’t let its delicate appearance fool you: the Kaibab Bridge has been standing since 1928, and still welcomes tens of thousands of visitors every year. (Image courtesy of Grand Canyon Explorer.)
The Grand Canyon’s Kaibab Trail Suspension Bridge has been recognized as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).
Built in 1928, the Kaibab is a single span suspension bridge connecting the north and south ridges of the Grand Canyon. It’s suspended from four 550-foot-long suspension cables and stabilized by two wind cables. The enormous cables presented a challenge when the bridge was built because motor traffic couldn’t access the remote site location. Instead, the 122 tons of material that were needed to build the bridge were carried on foot and by mule, each suspension cable carried by a line of workers.
Since 1928, the bridge has not been modified, and still carries about 100,000 visitors by foot or by mule every year. The difficult terrain means it’s the only connection between the two sides for 340 miles—between the Navajo Bridge and the Hoover Dam.
“The Kaibab Trail Suspension Bridge is exemplary of the park’s history and reminds us of the challenges that were required to build the bridge across the Colorado River in such an isolated location, without the benefit of modern transportation methods…