Sanders Bridge
a.k.a. Rio Puerco Bridge
Indian Rt. 9402 over the Puerco River, Sanders, AZIn 1922, the Arizona Highway Department began the major reconstruction of the Holbrook-Lupton Highway between Adamana and the state line. Two critical components of the project were the erection of substantial bridges over the Rio Puerco near the small Indian settlements of Sanders and Allentown. For the Sanders Bridge, AHD staff engineers designed two medium-span pony trusses supported by continuous concrete piers. Timber stringers formed approach spans on both sides. Using money from the state road fund and an Apache County bond issue, AHD let the contracts for the Sanders and Allentown bridges and a small pony truss over Lupton Arroyo at Lupton on January 1, 1923. The Monarch Engineering Company of Denver was awarded the contract for the Sanders Bridge. Monarch began construction of the bridge on May 22, worked through the summer, and, using steel milled by Inland, completed the structure on September 10. Total construction cost: $15,005. Both the Sanders and Allentown crossings were removed from the highway by another realignment in 1931, and the bridges have since carried local traffic on the Navajo Indian Reservation.
Later designated U.S. Highway 66, the Santa Fe Highway was a major transcontinental route across northern Arizona. Before the construction of this bridge, traffic on the highway often was forced to wait up to 24 hours for the Rio Puerco to subside enough to permit fording. The banders Bridge thus formed an important link on a major interstate route. The bridge is further significant as one of the earliest pony trusses built by the State Engineer, erected by a regionally active bridge contractor. Technologically, the Sanders Bridge is a representative and unaltered example of a common vehicular truss configuration: one of three riveted Pratt pony trusses identified in the inventory.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1988.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.