Generals' Highway Stone Bridges

Generals' Highway Stone Bridges

General's Highway Stone Bridge
Nearest city Mineral King, California
Coordinates 36°36′27″N 118°44′46″W / 36.60750°N 118.74611°W / 36.60750; -118.74611Coordinates: 36°36′27″N 118°44′46″W / 36.60750°N 118.74611°W / 36.60750; -118.74611
Built 1930
Architect Multiple; National Park Service
Architectural style National Park Service Rustic
NRHP Reference # 78000284
Added to NRHP September 13, 1978[1]

The Generals' Highway Stone Bridges, built in 1930, are part of the Generals' Highway from the General Grant Grove of giant sequoias in Kings Canyon National Park (then called General Grant National Park) through Sequoia National Park. One bridge spans the Marble Fork of the Kaweah River in a wooded setting, while the other, similar bridge spans Clover Creek in a bare canyon.

Design

The bridges are typically reinforced concrete barrel arches with uncoursed stone facing on the sides, in a National Park Service Rustic style. The concrete is not visible to passersby, whose attention is taken by the mass of the masonry. Of the two, the Clover Creek bridge is the more impressive, due to its setting. The bridges were designed by the National Park Service Branch of Plans and Designs in cooperation with the Bureau of Public Roads.[2][3]

The design inspiration for the bridges was the Westchester County, New York parkway system, which included the Bronx River and Hutchinson River parkways. The National Park Service sent two designers to observe the construction, and one of these, John Wosky, was the designer of the Generals' Highway bridges. Wosky developed the architectural design of the Marble Fork bridge in the fall of 1928, and structural plans were developed by the Bureau of Public Roads in January 1929. The Clover Creek bridge was designed in 1930, with construction the same year on both bridges. The contractor for both bridges was W.A. Bechtel.[3]

Drawing from the Historic American Engineering Record

References

  1. ↑ National Park Service (2008-04-15). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
  2. ↑ "Marble Fork Bridge". List of Classified Structures. National Park Service. 2008-12-09.
  3. 1 2 William Tweed (March 28, 1977). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination: Generals' Highway Stone Bridges" (pdf). National Park Service.

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