Arizona's Bridges: Navajo Bridge (3)

The view to the east (towards Marble Canyon) is much more colorful. I recall that there are only two highway bridges across the Colorado River in Arizona: the Navajo Bridge and the bridge at Glen Canyon Dam. There's also a few footbridge inside the Grand Canyon.

We'll study the history of Colorado River Crossings in tomorrow's blog.

Arizona's Bridges: Navajo Bridges (3) by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Arizona's Bridges:Navajo Bridge (2)

I can tell that it's the old bridge on the left because of its laced members. I believe this photo is looking to the west because I remember the mountains on the east side of the canyon were more colorful. 

Two young women were sitting under the shade of a tree selling jewelry by these bridges and I bought a silver pin in the shape of a roadrunner from them. I was happy because I made the women laugh by trying to speak Dine to them. The more I butchered their language the more they laughed.

Arizona's Bridges:Navajo Bridges (2) by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Arizona's Bridges: Navajo Bridges (1)

I thought we might leave North Africa for awhile (while wishing North Africans success in their bid for greater freedom) and look at a few bridges of the American Southwest. 

It's fairly straightforward to build a bridge over a canyon. Just dig deep notches for the supports and build towers to support the cantilever spans until they meet over the canyon.

There's actually two Navajo Bridges across Marble Canyon. This one was completed a few years ago. We'll look at the older bridge tomorrow.

Arizona's Bridges: Navajo Bridges (1) by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.