Santa Clara County, California Bridges: Alum Rock Park Bridge (2)

May 2014 (37.39452, -121.81178) Alum Rock Park Bridge

Some more photos of the Alum Rock Park Bridge. Alum Rock Park was the first municipal park in California (founded in 1872). The Alum Rock Park Bridge was built in 1913 as a tourist railroad bridge and designed by a famous bridge engineer, John B Leonard. From the early 1900s the park was a popular resort with a spa, swimming pool, mineral baths, and restaurant. Visitors rode the tourist train from San Jose into the park until the railroad closed in the 1920s.

This bridge is 250 ft long with a 130 ft long arch span, making it one of the longest closed spandrel arch bridges in the state. The bridge includes haunched T girder end spans and an arch main span over the creek. The span on the west end has been filled in, perhaps because the road that once went under it has been closed (see photo below). 

Santa Clara County, California Bridges: Alum Rock Park Bridge (2) by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.