Utah's Bridges: SR-12 Escalante River Bridge (1)

May 2006 (37.775 Degrees, -111.419 Degrees) Escalante River Bridge

State Route 12 Escalante River Bridge is a 103 ft long single span steel girder bridge on seat-type abutments.  In contrast to the sandstone-like appearance of yesterday's bridge, the stone facade on the barrier rail and abutment of today's bridge is less attractive (at least to me). Stone bridges are nice when you can see how they support the structure, but in this case the stone facade just weighs the bridge down.The designer was likely trying to match the weathered stones of the butte in the distance, but the stones are too dark.

The Escalante River was named (by explorer John Wesley Powell) after a Franciscan missionary who was the first European to explore Utah (in 1776). The river travels through beautiful sandstone gorges for 90 miles before flowing into Lake Powell. It can vary from a shallow creek to a raging torrent depending on the time of year.

State Route 12 is a 122 mile long scenic highway that crosses some of the most beautiful landscapes in the United States. It goes through Dixie National Forest, Bryce National Park, the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, the Aquarius Plateau, and ends at Capitol Reef National Park. It became a state highway in 1914.

Utah's Bridges: SR-12 Escalante River Bridge (1) by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.