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Escalante Canyon Bridge

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1890, Bullen Bridge Company. Delta County 650R over the Gunnison River, 2 miles west of U.S. 50 (NR)

This quaint wagon bridge has a plank roadway and two 180-foot spans of pin-connected steel camelback through trusses. Twice moved, it is Colorado's oldest still-used state bridge. The Escalante Bridge, ranch, and creek are all named to commemorate Padre Silvestre Vélez de Escalante, the Spanish Franciscan missionary, explorer, and journal keeper of the Dominguez-Escalante expedition. That party provided the first written account and map of this region on a 1776 expedition that aimed to establish an overland route between Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Monterey, California. A dirt road continues up Escalante Creek and Canyon to the Uncompahgre Plateau, passing a few ranches, ruins of quarry sites, the Escalante Canyon Wildlife Area, and the Dry Mesa Dinosaur Quarry, which has yielded bones of fourteen species.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Thomas J. Noel
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Data

What's Nearby

Dry Fork Petroglyphs
Walker Homestead Stone Cabin
Confluence Park

Citation

Thomas J. Noel, "Escalante Canyon Bridge", [Delta, Colorado], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/CO-01-DT08.

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