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ByLenStohler Wepassoverbridgesall the time, but what about visiting some of the nearby ones and finding out some- thing about their history and engineering? Many friends and oth- ers told me they read and enjoyed my October 2015 travelogue to Budapest, Vi- enna, Prague and Berlin in the Daily News. There is another interest I would like to share in these pages. The interest is in bridges, far and near. My friend, Lynn, and I watched The Great Courses DVD on how the great structures of the world are engineered and designed. It included a segment on bridges. We started to think about the great bridges that are a part of our life — the Golden Gate and the Bay Bridge — and others we have seen, walked on or driven over. We discovered a new type of adventure: searching out interesting bridges. They are every- where, of course! One of the most famous newer bridges in Europe that we had seen is the Le Viaduc de Millau, opened in December 2004, a cable- stayed bridge like the Sun- Dial Bridge in Redding. However, the Millau Bridge is 2,460 meters long. I will feature it in a future ar- ticle. We would not have seen it had it not been rec- ommended by a retired doctor in Santa Rosa after he and his wife visited Red- ding after reading about it in Sunset magazine. Today, I want to com- ment on a small bridge nearby, perfect to visit before the grasses turn brown, there is a hard frost, the rattlesnakes come seeking the sun and the temperatures rise. It is within a short drive. You must go within a few weeks as the countryside is painted beautiful de- grees of green at the pres- ent time. Years ago, I had driven from Orland to Black Butte Lake, turning left to Newville, south to Chrome and Elk Creek. Somewhere along that two-lane country road, it becomes Highway 162 that takes you to Wil- lows. At Elk Creek I saw the Stony Creek Dam and Reservoir. If you want a more time consuming drive you can take the Paskenta Road past the airport in Red Bluff. As you approach Elk Creek you will find a junc- tion that crosses Stony Creek where the old and new Stony Creek bridges are. You can get out of your car at the old bridge and walk across it as it is closed to traffic. I rejoice that this bridge was not destroyed as it is beauti- ful in design and "old" for California. This old concrete arch bridge, known as the Win- slow Bridge, was built in 1919. It is not difficult to understand how the road- way was supported as you observe the arch form an- chored into the rock on both sides. The arch sup- ports numerous vertical concrete pillars that reach to the roadbed and sup- port it. One technical descrip- tion is as follows: It is an open spandrel arch with continuous arch rings. It is usually referred to as a "spandrel cross wall" bridge and one of the few in California. Spandrel re- fers to the almost trian- gular space on the outer curve of an arch. My en- gineer friends will cor- rect me if this is incorrect. The bridge is only 111.9 feet long. Its sufficiency rating is 2.0 out of 100; however, it is safe to walk across. F. H. Nielson of Orland built the bridge for a bid of $23,420. An article in bridgebuilder.com said he had access to gravel and hired hard working men and had large jobs building irrigation projects (I would guess the Orland Project) and bridges; therefore, was given the contract by the Glenn County Board of Su- pervisors. The geology of the river around you is something to admire as the river flows over the channel with nu- merous riffles appearing. Also notice the sides and banks of the creek. Geo- logic time has left some fair size cliffs. At this location is the new bridge, amazing in its construction! It starts al- most perpendicular to the old bridge and runs to- wards Elk Creek and the Stony Creek Dam and Res- ervoir. The load of this bridge is supported by High-Ca- pacity Piles, 170-foot long steel piles with an 8-foot diameter. They are re- puted to be the largest piles ever driven on land. This gives the impres- sion that the bridge is sus- pended in the air when viewing from a distance because these 8-foot diam- eter piles do not stand out relative to the long bridge. I did not find any infor- mation on the concrete trusses on this bridge, but I can speculate how they were constructed. I hope there is no Chinese steel in them. I like very much the de- sign of the old bridges, but I am beginning to ad- mire the engineers who are working on design- ing these newer bridges because they are using newer designs which cut down on costs and in my eyes are beautiful. The new bridge had to be con- structed differently due to the faster traffic and the fact that arch construction could not be used for such a long span for several rea- sons. While there, take time to look at the hillsides grow- ing green grasses and the blue sky if you are there on a non-rainy or overcast day. There is another bridge nearby, but I did not find it. It is an abandoned pin connected Pratt through truss bridge with a wooden deck on County Road 303 built in an undetermined year and by-passed in 1981 and abandoned. It is said in commenting about the Winslow Bridge that the heavy traffic of "auto trucks" left this kind of bridge obsolete. I may just have to make another trip to find it. Should be easy to find now that I know it is there. Lynn and I visited this area after driving through the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge south of Willows travelling the op- posite direction mentioned above. We try to go there every year during the win- ter. Lynn identified four- teen different birds and four that were not iden- tified for certain. Among those observed were two bald eagles and numerous juvenile golden eagles. We could not determine how many golden eagles as they seemed to be moving about the refuge to hunt. Last year we observed tens of thousands of Ross's Geese, but the expert at the visi- tor center told us they had dispersed to the rice and other fields nearby after the heavy rains we had last month. Some bridges that may be discussed in future ar- ticles: the new bridge on 5 north of Redding, the new bridge over Spanish Creek in Plumas County that was featured in the Daily News three years ago, some Sacramento and Russian River bridges, some coastal bridges, an Eiffel railroad bridge in France that used the same structure as the Eiffel Tower in Paris and predated the tower, Le Via- duc de Millau in France, the Charles Bridge in Prague, the Chain Bridge in Budapest and others. LenStohlerhaslivedin Tehama County since 1969. He has always been interested in many things, with a passion for photography, history, literature and technology, including the progression of architectural design. Within the last few months, he is focusing on bridges he has visited and some he will visit, if time allows. Readers my reach Len at rblen37@ gmail.com. TRAVELOGUE Bridges far and near The two bridges over Stony Creek COURTESYPHOTO The 1919bridge over Stony Creek is pictured. COURTESY PHOTO The new bridge over Stony Creek is pictured. LITHIACHEVROLET OF REDDING ECY PRESS AVE HARTNELL AVE BECHELLI LN 5 H E M S T E D D R i STORE HOURS: MON-SAT 8:00am–8:00pm | SUN 10:00am–6:00pm Call us at [530] 223-1132 SHOP: LITHIACHEVROLETREDDING.COM *CA/ORConquestCashavailabletoCaliforniaandOregonresidentsonly.Plusgovernmentfeesandtaxes,anyfinancecharges,$80 dealer document processing charge, any electronic filing charge and any emission testing charge. All ad prices are for in stock vehicles only. See dealer for limited warranty details. Offers Expire 02/25/16. LITHIA CHEVROLET OF REDDING 200 East Cypress Avenue [Entrance off Hemsted] SeHabla Español! 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