Arroyo Seco Parkway: Arroyo Dr. Bridge – South Pasadena CA

Description

The Arroyo Dr. Bridge over Arroyo Seco Parkway (today’s Pasadena Freeway) in South Pasadena, CA was constructed in 1938 by the California State Division of Highways with Public Works Administration (PWA) funding. Although this bridge in unmarked, other similar bridges over Arroyo Seco Parkway feature extant PWA plaques.

When the first two stages of the Parkway were completed in 1943, 26 new bridges had been built along its 8.2-mile length, many with Works Progress Administration (WPA) labor. The Division of Highways Bridge Department supervised construction.

“[B]ridges were needed for safe and easy crossings, and were deemed necessary to maintain established community links in areas separated by the newly constructed parkway. Pedestrian bridges and equestrian tunnels were similarly intended to unify park facilities situated on either side of the roadway” (HAER No. Ca-265, p. 51).

All bridges built during the construction of the Arroyo Seco Parkway survive, as do the four bridges that predate the Parkway (Avenue 60, Santa Fe, North Broadway, and Washington Street). The “new bridges constructed for the parkway […] were less elaborately ornamented, reflecting both the rise of modernist aesthetics and the economic constraints involved in the construction of so many new structures. […] C.W. Jones, senior bridge engineer of District VII of the Division of Highways, emphasized the pragmatic economic appeal of simple concrete girder and rigid frame bridges structures with shallow, minimally ornamented deck” (HAER No. Ca-265, p. 52). Designed by the Division of Highways, “most were two-span concrete girder or rigid-frame structures, with the center pier located in the highway median” (HAER No. Ca-265, p. 55).

Construction of the Arroyo Seco Parkway bridges totaled nearly $1,600,000.