Alameda County, California Bridges: Verona Avenue Bridge across Arroyo de la Laguna

June 2014 (37.62667, -121.88263  Degrees) Verona Avenue Bridge

On the east side of Niles Canyon is the town of Pleasanton. We'll finish our tour of Alameda County bridges with a few structures around this affluent region. 

The Verona Avenue Bridge was built at the beginning of the 20th century to carry guests to a home that was being built for the Hearst family. The house and the bridge were named 'Verona' after the Italian city where the marble used to build their "Hacienda del Pozo de Verona" was quarried.

The bridge crosses over the Arroyo de la Laguna.  An arroyo is a dry stream bed that fills with water during the rainy season. The Arroyo de la Laguna is a 7.5 mile long stream that empties into Alameda Creek. It was originally a lagoon (when the Hearsts bought the property) but it has since degraded to a dry stream bed. 

The Verona Avenue Bridge is a 165 foot long Camelback Pratt truss pedestrian bridge between Pleasanton-Sunol and Foothill Roads. The bridge site is in a park with posters giving information on the degradation of the arroyo due to development and the efforts to reforest and preserve it. More information on the restoration project and on the Hearst Estate can be found here.

Alameda County, California Bridges: Verona Avenue Bridge across Arroyo de la Laguna by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.