Los Peñasquitos Creek Arch Bridge
Encyclopedia
San Diego, California
San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...
, USA.
Completed in 1949, the old bridge is a reinforced concrete
Reinforced concrete
Reinforced concrete is concrete in which reinforcement bars , reinforcement grids, plates or fibers have been incorporated to strengthen the concrete in tension. It was invented by French gardener Joseph Monier in 1849 and patented in 1867. The term Ferro Concrete refers only to concrete that is...
open-spandrel arch-bridge with an overall length of 434 feet (132.3 m), and an arch span of 220 feet (67.1 m). It now serves as a service road and bikepath.
The new Los Peñasquitos Creek bridge was first built in 1966 as the southbound lanes of the U.S. Route 395 freeway. It was completely replaced by a prestressed concrete
Prestressed concrete
Prestressed concrete is a method for overcoming concrete's natural weakness in tension. It can be used to produce beams, floors or bridges with a longer span than is practical with ordinary reinforced concrete...
girder bridge
Girder bridge
A girder bridge, in general, is a bridge built of girders placed on bridge abutments and foundation piers. In turn, a bridge deck is built on top of the girders in order to carry traffic. There are several different subtypes of girder bridges:...
during the widening of the Interstate 15 freeway traffic in 1976.
Cara Knott Memorial Bridge
In 1995, the new bridge was renamed the Cara Knott Memorial Bridge in honor of the 20-year-old San Diego State UniversitySan Diego State University
San Diego State University , founded in 1897 as San Diego Normal School, is the largest and oldest higher education facility in the greater San Diego area , and is part of the California State University system...
student who was stopped and then subsequently murdered by California Highway Patrol
California Highway Patrol
The California Highway Patrol is a law enforcement agency of the U.S. state of California. The CHP has patrol jurisdiction over all California highways and also acts as the state police....
officer Craig Peyer
Craig Peyer
Craig Allen Peyer was a rogue California Highway Patrol officer convicted of the 1986 strangulation murder of 20-year-old motorist Cara Knott, a student at San Diego State University.-Murder of Cara Knott:...
near the bridge on the night of December 27, 1986. Peyer was later convicted in the case and is serving a 25 years-to-life sentence in prison. In 2000, Cara's father died of a heart attack, just a few yards from the place where his daughter was killed, while taking care of a garden the family built to honor Cara.
