Santa Cruz County, California Bridges: Powder Works Bridge across the San Lorenzo River

March 2014 (37.01049 Degrees, -122.04384 Degrees) Powder Works Bridge

Two miles north of downtown Santa Cruz on the San Lorenzo River is the Powder Works Bridge. A paper mill was built at this location in 1860 but the area gained renown as the site of an explosives plant that began operations in 1864. The US Library of Congress writes:"The Powder Works Bridge is the second oldest of twenty-one extant Smith truss covered bridges in the United States. It was built in 1872 for the California Powder Works, the first powder mill on the Pacific Coast, and is one of the last vestiges of the company's extensive manufacturing complex that occupied the site from 1861 to 1914. The bridge is an excellent example of the early work of the Pacific Bridge Company, a nationally significant bridge engineering firm.

In 1924 the property was purchased by the Freemasons and turned into Paradise Park with picnic grounds and brightly painted houses. 

The Powder Works Bridge is a 180 ft long two span timber truss covered bridge. It is currently being considered by the National Park Service as a National Historic Landmark. The Felton Covered Bridge that we studied on March 18, 2014 is registered as a historic place, but it was rebuilt and moved and so it wouldn't qualify as a historic landmark. Since the Powder Works Bridge is on private land, it's up to the park residents to decide if they want their bridge to become a famous landmark.

Santa Cruz County, California Bridges: Powder Works Bridge across the San Lorenzo River by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.