page_title: Big Sur Coast Highway
section_title: Bridges required
hierarchical_section_title: Big Sur Coast Highway / Construction / Bridges required
caption_attribution_description: English: The Dolan Creek Bridge was a three-pinned arch designed with redwood timber members. The arch span was 180 ft in length and over 150 ft tall. The bridge was built by H.L. McCready and designed by T.K. May. This was one of the first timber bridges built by Caltrans that used metal ring connectors to transfer the load between the members (making the joints stronger than the members). The bridge sections were prefabricated in Monterey and then shipped to the site for assembly. In 1961, the bridge was replaced by a precast concrete girder bridge.
context_page_description: Big Sur Coast Highway is a section of California State Route 1 through the Big Sur region of California that is widely considered to be one of the most scenic driving routes in the United States, if not the world. It was the first California Scenic Highway and the first federal All American Road. It has been compared to the Amalfi Coast of Italy, the rugged scenic north coast of Taiwan, and roadways in the Andes. Condé Nast Traveler named State Route 1 through Big Sur one of the top 10 world-famous streets, comparable to Broadway in New York City and the Champs-Élysées in Paris.
  The Big Sur portion of Highway 1 is generally considered to include the 71-mile segment adjoining the unincorporated region of Big Sur between Malpaso Creek near Carmel Highlands in the north and San Carpóforo Creek near San Simeon in the south.
  Prior to its completion, the California coast south of Carmel and north of San Simeon was one of the most remote regions in the state, rivaling at the time nearly any other region in the United States for its difficult access. At the turn of the 19th century, the 30 mi trip from Monterey to the Pfeiffer Ranch in the Big Sur valley could take three days by wagon.
context_section_description: Road construction necessitated construction of 29 bridges, the most difficult of which was the bridge over Bixby Creek, about 13 miles (21 km) south of Carmel. Upon completion, the Bixby Creek Bridge was 714 feet (218 m) long, 24 feet (7.3 m) wide, 260 feet (79 m) above the creek bed below, and had a main span of 360 feet (110 m). The bridge was designed to support more than six times its intended load. When it was completed on October 15, 1932, Bixby Creek Bridge was the largest arched highway structure in the Western states. Five more reinforced concrete bridges were built at Rocky, Granite, Garapata, Malpaso, and Wildcat Creeks. But the entire highway was not completed for another five years. All of the concrete arch bridges were listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. They were also included in the California Register of Historic Resources in 1992.
  The contractor built a large bridge of Redwood with a span of 514 feet (157 m) at Dolan Creek because of the considerable distance required to haul concrete. They also built wood bridges at Lime Creek, Prewitt Creek, Wild Cattle Creek and Torre Canyon. Steel bridges were built at Burns Creek, San Simeon Creek, Pico Creek, Castro Canyon, Mill Creek and Little Pico Creek. The timber and steel bridges, with the exception of Castro Canyon and Mill Creek, were all replaced with concrete bridges later on.
caption: The Dolan Creek Bridge south of Slates Hot Springs was a three-pinned arch design built from redwood timber in 1934–35. It was replaced by a precast concrete girder bridge in 1961.
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