Cabrillo Bridge

Cabrillo Bridge. . , When the 1915 Panama-California Exposition was related to an upper mesa of Balboa Park from the original proposed site near downtown San Diego, a bridge over Cabrillo Canyon was required. Director of Works Frank P. Allen, Jr. (1831-1943) successfully demonstrated the feasibility of spanning the wide canyon and, with chief architect Beatram Grosvenor Goodhue (1869-1924), created the first drawings of "Puerte de Cabrillo" as a dramatic entrance to the Exposition. , Allen worked with San Francisco engineer Thomas Benton Hunter, Jr. (1880-1955) to design a bridge echoing Spanish traditions and the simplicity and grace of a Roman Aqueduct. It is California's first multiple-arched, cantilever-style span. It is a reinforced concrete structure using hollow piers to support the bridge. The piers cantilever to form the seven arched openings. Four thousand-fifty tons of the steel and 7,700 cubic yards of concrete were used to construct the bridge. It is 40 feet wide, extends 1,505 feet across the canyon and rises 120 feet above the canyon's deepest point. At a dedication on April 12, 1914, Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt was among officials making a ceremonial first automobile crossing over the completed bridge. , During the 1915 Exposition, a man-made lagoon at the base of the bridge reflected the arches and was attractively landscaped with aquatic plants. The lagoon was eventually drained to accommodate an increase in automobiles using long-established trail through the floor of Cabrillo Canyon. in 1941 San Diego voters agreed to the incursion of a highway through Balboa Park. By 1948, a freeway passing under the Cabrillo Bridge was completed. A 1962 proposal to double deck the freeway to create eight lanes was repealed. , The Cabrillo bridge was built as one of the permanent 1915 Exposition structures. Major repairs have occurred over the years including fences installed in 1950. In a California Department of Transportation project in 2013, the bridge received a major restoration and seismic retrofit and arches were lighted for the first time. The Cabrillo Bridge was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.