San Mateo County, California Bridges: Crystal Springs Road Bridge across San Mateo Creek

July 2014 (37.54194 Degrees, -122.34889 Degrees) Crystal Springs Road Bridge

Back to the City of San Mateo and a few last arch bridges. The Crystal Springs Road Bridge (35C0037) over San Mateo Creek is a 40 ft closed spandrel arch that was built in 1904. 

I wonder why arch bridges were so popular 110 years ago. They seem like a poor choice since they restrict the stream flow and cause flooding upstream. Today an inexpensive bridge for a 40 ft span would be a nice shallow reinforced concrete slab.

San Mateo County, California Bridges: Crystal Springs Road Bridge across San Mateo Creek by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.