The Cold Spring Canyon Arch Bridge in the Santa Ynez Mountains links Santa Barbara, California with Santa Ynez, California. The bridge is signed as part of State Route 154.
It is currently the highest arch bridge in the U.S. state of California and among the highest bridges in the United States. At its highest point, the bridge deck is 400 ft (122 m) above the canyon floor.
Video Cold Spring Canyon Arch Bridge
History
The current bridge was completed and opened to traffic in 1963, and won awards for engineering, design, and beauty. It was in the top 5 longest span arch bridges of this "supported deck" type in the world until the 1990s.
Cold Spring Tavern, originally a stagecoach stop, is approximately 600m south of the bridge's west base in the canyon below, on a stub of Old San Marcos Pass Road (now named Stagecoach Rd.) connecting with SR 154 at Camino Cielo and Paradise Roads.
Seismic retrofitting was completed in 1998.
Barriers
As of March 2012, the bridge had been the site of 55 suicides since its completion, which is about one per year on average; however, some years have several more suicides, such as the eight deaths recorded in 2009. In an effort to prevent future incidents, California Department of Transportation installed a 9.5 ft (2.9 m) tall barrier in the form of an inwardly-curved, finely-gridded mesh fence in March 2012. The fence cost $3.2 million. A Santa Monica man committed suicide from the bridge six months later in September 2012.
Maps Cold Spring Canyon Arch Bridge
Gallery
See also
- Santa Ynez Mountains
- Santa Ynez Valley
- Suicide bridge
- Gaviota Pass
References
External links
- Cold Spring Bridge, dot.ca.gov, retrieved on 2007-01-31.
- List of Awards "Highways and Roads" (CA DOT CalHwyIndex.pdf), pg. 28
- Cold Spring Canyon Arch Bridge at Structurae
- "Fatal Attraction - Cold Spring Toll Hits 47", EdHat.com, November 28, 2008
- Buckland & Taylor Ltd..com: Seismic retrofit in 1999
- 2008 Flickr.com: Aerial photo
- Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) No. CA-2298, "Cold Spring Canyon Bridge, State Route (SR) 154, Santa Barbara County, CA", 17 photos, 41 data pages, 2 photo caption pages
Source of article : Wikipedia
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