Maroon Creek Bridge
Encyclopedia
The original Maroon Creek Bridge is a steel trestle
along State Highway 82
at the western boundary of Aspen
, Colorado, United States. It was designed by George S. Morison in 1888 for the Colorado Midland Railroad, one of the last trestles in Colorado built for a narrow gauge
mountain railroad in the 19th century. Due to the later removal of most track and the rail depots, the bridge is the most visible remnant of rail service to Aspen. In 1985 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
along with other highway bridges in the state, including the Sheely Bridge
, also in Aspen.
When it was built, the Midland was ahead in its race with the Denver and Rio Grande
to make the first rail connection to Aspen, then a booming silver mining center. The Midland had followed the Roaring Fork Valley
up from its main line at Glenwood Springs
, but was stalled at Maroon Creek by a delay in the bridge steel. The Rio Grande was thus able to make up the difference and bring the first train to Aspen, with the Midland following a few months later.
Aspen's boom years ended a few years later, and by the 1920s the bridge was abandoned. It was soon expanded and converted to use as a road bridge. It served as the main entrance to Aspen for many visitors as the city's economy rebounded when the Aspen Mountain ski resort
was developed after World War II. As growth spilled over to Aspen's west, it became a traffic choke point for the region.
It remained in use until longstanding plans for a newer, wider bridge came to fruition in 2008. At that time the original bridge was the oldest one still in use on Colorado's state highways. The award-winning new bridge was designed to be aesthetically similar to its predecessor, which remains in service as a foot bridge. It may be used for a light rail
line to further alleviate traffic problems in the valley.
where Maroon Creek Road, the access route to the Maroon Bells
leaves to the south, just outside the developed portion of the city of Aspen. Due west of that are the remnants of the Holden Mining and Smelting Co. facility, also listed on the National Register as a historic district
. The city's corporate limit follows the bridge, with the land to the north within Aspen and the south just Pitkin County
. The creek flows through a deep gorge below, roughly 1 mile (1.6 km) upstream of where it drains into the Roaring Fork River
to the north. On all corners but the southeast are golf courses; that corner has a small residential neighborhood of modern construction.
A steel safety net has been installed since construction of the new bridge in the two-foot (60 cm) gap between the bridges. The original bridge has 20 plate girder spans
supported by nine tapered steel piers. Two deep deck girders, iron plate webs with rivet
ed angle flange
s and web stiffeners, carry the road. The piers are made up of two bents
, their legs made of two back-to-back steel channels with cover plate and double lacing. They are braced by tiers of compression beams and tension eyebars. At the ground they are supported by masonry
piers.
The new bridge is 620 feet (189 m) long, 30 feet (10 m) shorter than its older neighbor. It consists of a 270 feet (82.3 m) main span with two 170 feet (51.8 m) end spans. Its deck is formed from a 73-foot–wide (73 feet (22.3 m)) single-cell box girder at a constant depth of 13½ feet (13.5 feet (4.1 m)) with ribbed elements supporting the long slab spans. Most segments are 15 feet (4.6 m) long, with a deck rib 5 feet (1.5 m) from the leading edge. The segments are laid out on 25 feet (7.6 m) pier table, with eight in the main cantilever, ten in the side spans and a 5-foot segment closing the two cantilevers.
They are supported by A-shaped concrete piers with a capital
at the top flared outward at the same angle as the outriggers on the historic bridge. The piers themselves are a constant 10 feet (3 m) in the direction of the bridge but stretch from 6 feet (2 m) at the top to 10 feet (3 m) at the bottom. Their footings are on 12 4-foot–wide (4 feet (1.2 m)) drilled 20 feet (6 m) deep into the bedrock
. The abutment
s on either side of the gorge are supported by 72 8 inches (20.3 cm) micropiles designed to support 150 kips
each.
established by prospectors drawn west from Leadville
, in the late 1870s. The mineral veins there had already been thoroughly exploited, and those first settlers defied an order from governor Frederick Walker Pitkin
to cross the Continental Divide
at Independence Pass
into what was still Ute country. They were drawn by reports of vast silver deposits.
Aspen eventually became the center of settlement in the region due to its location at the confluence
of Castle Creek and the Roaring Fork. It was not closest to the Divide or the richest deposits, but it had an ample supply of level ground and forests including the trees
that gave it its name, which were readily harvested to build the first log cabin
s.
The silver was difficult to exploit at first since the ore had to be taken to Leadville to be smelted
. The route over the pass was long even in warm weather, and suited only for mule train
s (even today, Highway 82 through it is closed during wintertime). Once the smelter at the Holden property was opened in the mid-1880s, mining profits and population grew rapidly, helped by the Sherman Silver Purchase Act
's requirement that the federal government purchase the metal. Two railroads, the Colorado Midland and the Denver & Rio Grande Western
, began building narrow gauge
routes to the remote city, racing to be the first.
for its first four years since it lacked the money to actually build anything. That changed rapidly when Jack Hagerman, an Easterner
who had already grown rich from Aspen silver, joined the railroad in 1887. By the end of that year the Midland had laid 250 miles (402.3 km) of standard gauge
track from Colorado Springs
to Leadville. The Hagerman Tunnel
, at the time the world's highest, got it across the Divide to Glenwood Springs
, where it began building a narrow-gauge line to Aspen.
The previous year the Rio Grande had been forced into receivership
and sold to its bondholders as a result of growing too fast in its earlier years. William S. Jackson, its new president, had tried to convince the board to expand to Aspen ahead of the Midland, but they were too afraid of further financial failure. The next year a new president, David Moffat
, changed their minds and the railroad began laying track on the north side of the Roaring Fork, where they did not have to worry about crossing Maroon Creek.
That decision proved to be beneficial in overcoming the Midland's lead and bringing the first train to Aspen in October 1887. At that point the Midland's crews had laid track almost as far as Maroon Creek. The railroad had hired renowned engineer and bridge designer George S. Morison to design and build the bridge using his innovative double-bent piers, first used on the Portage Viaduct in New York and later on the Boone Viaduct
in Iowa. A timber trestle could have been built, but when the crews reached the creek in December they had to wait as the structural steel for Morison's bridge had been delayed leaving its fabricator back East. They continued working through the difficult mountain winter and completed the bridge in time for the Midland's first train to cross it and arrive in Aspen in February 1888. Although the Midland lost the race, its bridge, one of the last narrow-gauge trestle bridges built in Colorado that century, was more significant since it connected Aspen to its standard-gauge main line, the first built into the state's mountains. In 1890 the Rio Grande widened its branch to standard gauge. The two railroads competed vigorously as the city's population swelled to over 10,000. The Aspen City Railway, a mule-pulled streetcar
, connected the two depots.
Aspen's boom years ended in 1893, when Congress repealed the Sherman Silver Purchase Act
in response to that year's economic crisis
. With the market no longer artificially supported, the price of silver dropped and many of the city's mines closed, beginning a long period of the city's history known as "the quiet years". The railroad, which had recently built the Busk–Ivanhoe Tunnel, which improved service along its main line, continued operating even as it went bankrupt
in 1897, and reemerged as a new company with the same name. The second Colorado Midland went bankrupt again in 1919, as most of Aspen's remaining silver mines shut down. The bridge remained, unused.
stifled any chance of that happening, and both the road and the railroad were primarily used to transport livestock raised by the area's ranchers to market.
The road and railroad would eventually figure in Aspen's economic rebirth, though not from the source originally envisioned. Near the end of the Depression, a local landowner showed some photographs of mountainside property he saw mining potential in to Ted Ryan, an heir to Thomas Fortune Ryan
. He was a downhill skiing enthusiast who saw that the slopes would be ideal for development as a ski area. By the end of the decade the first crude ski lift
had been built, some Swiss ski instructors hired, and the first trails cut. Members of the Tenth Mountain Division who trained at nearby Camp Hale
also came to appreciate Aspen's offerings. After the war, some came back to develop the ski resort established by Walter Paepcke
, the president of the Container Corporation of America
. He and his wife Elizabeth had found Aspen an ideal place to establish a music festival
, and invested heavily in rebuilding the city. Early in 1947, a special train brought dignitaries from out of town, including one of Colorado's U.S. senators and its governor-elect, to Aspen for a ceremony marking the opening of the new chairlift, at the time the world's longest. The breaking of a champagne bottle across the bottom station
ended the quiet years.
. But many preferred to drive or be driven up Highway 82 from that point. The Aspen Skiing Company
developed the greater Aspen/Snowmass
complex, including the Buttermilk
ski area just west of the bridge in 1958 and Snowmass
further west, both contributing to traffic over the bridge.
The bridge's importance as the gateway to Aspen increased further when Aspen-Pitkin County Airport
was built in 1953 just outside the city. Over the 1950s the population of Pitkin County grew 44%, due to migration to the upper Roaring Fork Valley, the second highest growth rate on Colorado's Western Slope
. Ten years after the airport was opened, in 1963, the bridge was expanded to its current width to handle the traffic increase. Ranchers began selling their lands for skiing and housing development, some of which became the town of Snowmass
, where the workers in Aspen's hotels, restaurants and shops settled, eventually incorporating
in the mid-1970s. Aspen became a destination for more than just skiing, and its population continued to grow.
In 1969 eight decades of rail transport to Aspen came to an end when the Rio Grande ran its last train from the city, a development that attracted less local attention than the first trains had. The tracks were removed and its depot demolished, leaving the bridge as the only significant remnant of Aspen's railroad era. When the railroad finally turned its Rio Grande Zephyr
service between Denver
and Salt Lake City over to Amtrak
in 1983, the last private intercity rail route to do so, Amtrak did not restore service to Aspen. Service along the branch was finally abandoned completely when the last coal train left Carbondale
in 1994, ending the Roaring Fork Valley's railroad era.
By that time the bridge was showing its age. Traffic across the bridge grew at an average annual rate of 4.4% during the 1980s. In 1990 the Colorado Department of Transportation
(CDOT) released a plan for a new bridge at the site. The twin three-span steel box girder concept did not meet with public approval due to concerns about its aesthetics, environmental impact and effect on other roads of traffic diverted during construction, since its closure would necessitate a long detour on local roads through Woody Creek
.
Drivers on the bridge also had to contend with pedestrian users. The roadway was too narrow to install a sidewalk or walkway. In 1998 a pedestrian bridge of eight 82 feet (25 m) segments was built immediately to the north. It was a temporary solution to the increasing traffic problem and was never very popular locally.
In the first years of the 21st century its sufficiency rating
slipped to 9 out of a possible 100. It was temporarily closed to trucks while cracks in the masonry at the piers' base were repaired, restoring it to a sufficiency rating of 24. In 2004, after the municipal governments of Aspen and Snowmass
decided to fund the design work, CDOT announced that it was expediting the planning process and hoped that construction would begin the following year. Traffic could continue to use the old bridge in the meantime. There were some objections to the disruption that would be caused pedestrians, since the old pedestrian bridge would have to be dismantled.
concrete box girder design was decided on. The piers were tapered to echo the pinched-waist appearance of the old trestle next to it. Construction began in late 2005. Environmental considerations required that no more than 0.2 acres (809.4 m²) of the protected
wetland
below the bridge be disturbed during construction, and half that area be permanently disturbed for the bridge piers. The bridge was therefore built from the top down, using a balanced cantilever
construction method. To allow concrete construction to continue through the winter, the contractor insulated
the forms and ran glycol
-filled pipes along their exteriors.
By late 2007, two years after work started, the main span was done. The entire bridge was completed in early 2008. Up to that point, the 120-year–old bridge remained in use, the oldest still in use on Colorado's state highways.
After construction of new road approaches, including designated bus lanes, the new bridge opened in the middle of the year, its final cost almost $14 million. as the Colorado Department of Transportation had classified it as "unstable" at near capacity. After the new bridge (a concrete box girder bridge
) was completed, the existing bridge was left in place to honor its historic designation. In 2010, CDOT won a Bridge Award for Excellence from the National Segmental Bridge Institute.
In late 2010 a body found under the bridge was identified as George Aldrich, a ski-lift operator who had recently moved to Snowmass from Rhode Island. He had been missing for over two weeks since getting off a bus near the bridge following a night of drinking with friends in Aspen. The county coroner
ruled that he had died from injuries sustained in a fall, which had likely occurred when a heavily intoxicated Aldrich accidentally stepped in the gap between the two bridges in the dark. CDOT later installed the safety netting between the two bridges to prevent similar accidents in the future.
permitting the city to endorse the county's application to the federal Urban Mass Transportation Authority
for the funding of a light rail
system to connect downtown Aspen to the airport, and perhaps the Buttermilk
ski area and eventually all the way to Glenwood Springs using either of the old rights-of-way. Later votes endorsed other aspects of the proposal. In 1997 the Federal Highway Administration
and CDOT issued a Record of Decision
(ROD) in favor of a light-rail network and improvements to Highway 82, including the new bridge eventually built. The light rail line would likely use the old bridge and the old Midland route where it exists, since those tracks had already accounted for the steep grades in the valley, not a common problem with light-rail lines.
After the ROD, another referendum found city voters still supporting light rail but county voters opposed. The federal government nonetheless set aside funding for the segment to the airport, which would have been the first rural light rail line built in the U.S. Later referendums on bond issues to fund the city's portion failed, and after the failure of another referendum to build a monorail between Denver and ski resorts along I-70 the project did not seem likely to begin until money was available from another source.
Segments of the former pedestrian bridge are being reused. One was sold for scrap and four others were used as part of a pedestrian bridge across the Roaring Fork near Basalt. Three others are in storage; the county is considering using them to replace an old bridge along the Brush Creek Path in Snowmass.
Trestle
A trestle is a rigid frame used as a support, especially referring to a bridge composed of a number of short spans supported by such frames. In the context of trestle bridges, each supporting frame is generally referred to as a bent...
along State Highway 82
Colorado State Highway 82
State Highway 82 is an 85.29 mile long state highway in the U.S. state of Colorado.-Route description:SH 82 provides the principal transportation artery of the Roaring Fork Valley on the Colorado Western Slope, running from Interstate 70 at Glenwood Springs southeast past Carbondale, Basalt...
at the western boundary of Aspen
Aspen, Colorado
The City of Aspen is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and the most populous city of Pitkin County, Colorado, United States. The United States Census Bureau estimates that the city population was 5,804 in 2005...
, Colorado, United States. It was designed by George S. Morison in 1888 for the Colorado Midland Railroad, one of the last trestles in Colorado built for a narrow gauge
Narrow gauge
A narrow gauge railway is a railway that has a track gauge narrower than the of standard gauge railways. Most existing narrow gauge railways have gauges of between and .- Overview :...
mountain railroad in the 19th century. Due to the later removal of most track and the rail depots, the bridge is the most visible remnant of rail service to Aspen. In 1985 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
along with other highway bridges in the state, including the Sheely Bridge
Sheely Bridge
The Sheely Bridge carries pedestrian traffic across the Roaring Fork River in Mill Street Park in Aspen, Colorado, United States. It is a short steel truss bridge originally located downstream in Carbondale and later moved to its present location....
, also in Aspen.
When it was built, the Midland was ahead in its race with the Denver and Rio Grande
Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad
The Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad , often shortened to Rio Grande or D&RGW, formerly the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, is a defunct U.S. railroad company. The railroad started as a narrow gauge line running south from Denver, Colorado in 1870; however, served mainly as a transcontinental...
to make the first rail connection to Aspen, then a booming silver mining center. The Midland had followed the Roaring Fork Valley
Roaring Fork Valley
The Roaring Fork Valley is a geographical region in western Colorado in the United States. The Roaring Fork Valley is one of the most affluent regions in Colorado as well as one of the most populous and economically vital areas of the Colorado Western Slope. The Valley is defined by the valley of...
up from its main line at Glenwood Springs
Glenwood Springs, Colorado
The City of Glenwood Springs is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and the most populous city of Garfield County, Colorado, United States. The United States Census Bureau estimated that the city population was 8,564 in 2005...
, but was stalled at Maroon Creek by a delay in the bridge steel. The Rio Grande was thus able to make up the difference and bring the first train to Aspen, with the Midland following a few months later.
Aspen's boom years ended a few years later, and by the 1920s the bridge was abandoned. It was soon expanded and converted to use as a road bridge. It served as the main entrance to Aspen for many visitors as the city's economy rebounded when the Aspen Mountain ski resort
Aspen Mountain (ski area)
Aspen Mountain is a ski area located in Pitkin County, Colorado, just outside and above the city of Aspen. It is situated on the north flank of Aspen Mountain and the higher Bell Mountain at an elevation of 11,212 ft just to the south of Aspen Mountain...
was developed after World War II. As growth spilled over to Aspen's west, it became a traffic choke point for the region.
It remained in use until longstanding plans for a newer, wider bridge came to fruition in 2008. At that time the original bridge was the oldest one still in use on Colorado's state highways. The award-winning new bridge was designed to be aesthetically similar to its predecessor, which remains in service as a foot bridge. It may be used for a light rail
Light rail
Light rail or light rail transit is a form of urban rail public transportation that generally has a lower capacity and lower speed than heavy rail and metro systems, but higher capacity and higher speed than traditional street-running tram systems...
line to further alleviate traffic problems in the valley.
Structures
Both bridges are located adjacent to each other along Highway 82 approximately one-half mile (1 km) east of the traffic circleTraffic circle
A traffic circle or rotary is a type of circular intersection in which traffic must travel in one direction around a central island. In some countries, traffic entering the circle has the right-of-way and drivers in the circle must yield. In many other countries, traffic entering the circle must...
where Maroon Creek Road, the access route to the Maroon Bells
Maroon Bells
The Maroon Bells are two peaks in the Elk Mountains, Maroon Peak and North Maroon Peak, separated by about a third of a mile. The mountain is on the border between Pitkin County and Gunnison County, Colorado, United States, about 12 miles southwest of Aspen. Both peaks are counted as fourteeners...
leaves to the south, just outside the developed portion of the city of Aspen. Due west of that are the remnants of the Holden Mining and Smelting Co. facility, also listed on the National Register as a historic district
Historic district (United States)
In the United States, a historic district is a group of buildings, properties, or sites that have been designated by one of several entities on different levels as historically or architecturally significant. Buildings, structures, objects and sites within a historic district are normally divided...
. The city's corporate limit follows the bridge, with the land to the north within Aspen and the south just Pitkin County
Pitkin County, Colorado
Pitkin County is one of the 64 counties of the State of Colorado of the United States. The county is named in honor of the late Colorado Governor Frederick Walker Pitkin. The county population was 14,872 at U.S. Census 2000. The county seat is Aspen...
. The creek flows through a deep gorge below, roughly 1 mile (1.6 km) upstream of where it drains into the Roaring Fork River
Roaring Fork River
Roaring Fork River is a tributary of the Colorado River, approximately long, in west central Colorado in the United States. The river drains a populated and economically vital area of the Colorado Western Slope called the Roaring Fork Valley or Roaring Fork Watershed, which includes the resort...
to the north. On all corners but the southeast are golf courses; that corner has a small residential neighborhood of modern construction.
A steel safety net has been installed since construction of the new bridge in the two-foot (60 cm) gap between the bridges. The original bridge has 20 plate girder spans
Plate girder bridge
A plate girder bridge is a bridge supported by two or more plate girders. The plate girders are typically I-beams made up from separate structural steel plates , which are welded or, in older bridges, bolted or riveted together to form the vertical web and horizontal flanges of the beam...
supported by nine tapered steel piers. Two deep deck girders, iron plate webs with rivet
Rivet
A rivet is a permanent mechanical fastener. Before being installed a rivet consists of a smooth cylindrical shaft with a head on one end. The end opposite the head is called the buck-tail. On installation the rivet is placed in a punched or pre-drilled hole, and the tail is upset, or bucked A rivet...
ed angle flange
Flange
A flange is an external or internal ridge, or rim , for strength, as the flange of an iron beam such as an I-beam or a T-beam; or for attachment to another object, as the flange on the end of a pipe, steam cylinder, etc., or on the lens mount of a camera; or for a flange of a rail car or tram wheel...
s and web stiffeners, carry the road. The piers are made up of two bents
Bent (structural)
A bent is a framework composed of several structural members that defines the cross-section of a timber frame building or supports a trestle. The term bent is probably an archaic past tense of the verb to bind, referring to the way the timbers of a bent are joined together...
, their legs made of two back-to-back steel channels with cover plate and double lacing. They are braced by tiers of compression beams and tension eyebars. At the ground they are supported by masonry
Masonry
Masonry is the building of structures from individual units laid in and bound together by mortar; the term masonry can also refer to the units themselves. The common materials of masonry construction are brick, stone, marble, granite, travertine, limestone; concrete block, glass block, stucco, and...
piers.
The new bridge is 620 feet (189 m) long, 30 feet (10 m) shorter than its older neighbor. It consists of a 270 feet (82.3 m) main span with two 170 feet (51.8 m) end spans. Its deck is formed from a 73-foot–wide (73 feet (22.3 m)) single-cell box girder at a constant depth of 13½ feet (13.5 feet (4.1 m)) with ribbed elements supporting the long slab spans. Most segments are 15 feet (4.6 m) long, with a deck rib 5 feet (1.5 m) from the leading edge. The segments are laid out on 25 feet (7.6 m) pier table, with eight in the main cantilever, ten in the side spans and a 5-foot segment closing the two cantilevers.
They are supported by A-shaped concrete piers with a capital
Capital (architecture)
In architecture the capital forms the topmost member of a column . It mediates between the column and the load thrusting down upon it, broadening the area of the column's supporting surface...
at the top flared outward at the same angle as the outriggers on the historic bridge. The piers themselves are a constant 10 feet (3 m) in the direction of the bridge but stretch from 6 feet (2 m) at the top to 10 feet (3 m) at the bottom. Their footings are on 12 4-foot–wide (4 feet (1.2 m)) drilled 20 feet (6 m) deep into the bedrock
Bedrock
In stratigraphy, bedrock is the native consolidated rock underlying the surface of a terrestrial planet, usually the Earth. Above the bedrock is usually an area of broken and weathered unconsolidated rock in the basal subsoil...
. The abutment
Abutment
An abutment is, generally, the point where two structures or objects meet. This word comes from the verb abut, which means adjoin or having common boundary. An abutment is an engineering term that describes a structure located at the ends of a bridge, where the bridge slab adjoins the approaching...
s on either side of the gorge are supported by 72 8 inches (20.3 cm) micropiles designed to support 150 kips
Kip (unit)
A kip is a non-SI unit of force that equals 1,000 pounds-force, used primarily by architects and engineers to measure engineering loads. Although uncommon, it is occasionally also considered a unit of mass, equal to 1,000 pounds, i.e. one half of a U.S. ton...
each.
History
The bridge's history is intertwined with the city it serves. Built during a scramble to exploit its silver deposits, it outlasted the railroads that used it to become the main road entrance to Aspen, eventually becoming their only remnant. Stressed as the city rebounded when it became a popular ski resort, it was later augmented with a modern bridge specifically designed to echo it aesthetically.1870s–1887: Aspen's boom
What would very quickly become the city of Aspen began as one of several mining camps in the upper Roaring Fork ValleyRoaring Fork Valley
The Roaring Fork Valley is a geographical region in western Colorado in the United States. The Roaring Fork Valley is one of the most affluent regions in Colorado as well as one of the most populous and economically vital areas of the Colorado Western Slope. The Valley is defined by the valley of...
established by prospectors drawn west from Leadville
Leadville, Colorado
Leadville is a Statutory City that is the county seat of, and the only municipality in, Lake County, Colorado, United States. Situated at an elevation of , Leadville is the highest incorporated city and the second highest incorporated municipality in the United States...
, in the late 1870s. The mineral veins there had already been thoroughly exploited, and those first settlers defied an order from governor Frederick Walker Pitkin
Frederick Walker Pitkin
Frederick Walker Pitkin , a U.S. Republican Party politician, served as the second Governor of Colorado from 1879 to 1883. Pitkin County, Colorado was named in his honor....
to cross the Continental Divide
Continental Divide
The Continental Divide of the Americas, or merely the Continental Gulf of Division or Great Divide, is the name given to the principal, and largely mountainous, hydrological divide of the Americas that separates the watersheds that drain into the Pacific Ocean from those river systems that drain...
at Independence Pass
Independence Pass (Colorado)
Independence Pass, elevation , is a high mountain pass in the Rocky Mountains of central Colorado in the United States.The pass crosses the ridge of the Sawatch Range between Aspen and Leadville, on the border between Pitkin and Lake counties, and is within the White River National Forest...
into what was still Ute country. They were drawn by reports of vast silver deposits.
Aspen eventually became the center of settlement in the region due to its location at the confluence
Confluence
Confluence, in geography, describes the meeting of two or more bodies of water.Confluence may also refer to:* Confluence , a property of term rewriting systems...
of Castle Creek and the Roaring Fork. It was not closest to the Divide or the richest deposits, but it had an ample supply of level ground and forests including the trees
Aspen
Populus section Populus, of the Populus genus, includes the aspen trees and the white poplar Populus alba. The five typical aspens are all native to cold regions with cool summers, in the north of the Northern Hemisphere, extending south at high altitudes in the mountains. The White Poplar, by...
that gave it its name, which were readily harvested to build the first log cabin
Log cabin
A log cabin is a house built from logs. It is a fairly simple type of log house. A distinction should be drawn between the traditional meanings of "log cabin" and "log house." Historically most "Log cabins" were a simple one- or 1½-story structures, somewhat impermanent, and less finished or less...
s.
The silver was difficult to exploit at first since the ore had to be taken to Leadville to be smelted
Smelting
Smelting is a form of extractive metallurgy; its main use is to produce a metal from its ore. This includes iron extraction from iron ore, and copper extraction and other base metals from their ores...
. The route over the pass was long even in warm weather, and suited only for mule train
Mule train
Mule train can refer to:*A connected line of mules*Mule Train, 1949 popular song written by Johnny Lange, Hy Heath, Doc Tommy Scott and Fred Glickman...
s (even today, Highway 82 through it is closed during wintertime). Once the smelter at the Holden property was opened in the mid-1880s, mining profits and population grew rapidly, helped by the Sherman Silver Purchase Act
Sherman Silver Purchase Act
The Sherman Silver Purchase Act was enacted on July 14, 1890 as a United States federal law. It was named after its author, Senator John Sherman, an Ohio Republican, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee...
's requirement that the federal government purchase the metal. Two railroads, the Colorado Midland and the Denver & Rio Grande Western
Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad
The Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad , often shortened to Rio Grande or D&RGW, formerly the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, is a defunct U.S. railroad company. The railroad started as a narrow gauge line running south from Denver, Colorado in 1870; however, served mainly as a transcontinental...
, began building narrow gauge
Narrow gauge
A narrow gauge railway is a railway that has a track gauge narrower than the of standard gauge railways. Most existing narrow gauge railways have gauges of between and .- Overview :...
routes to the remote city, racing to be the first.
1887–1893: Bridge construction and early railroad use
Formed in 1883, the Midland had existed purely legallyPaper railroad
In the United States, a paper railroad is a company in the railroad business which exists "on paper only": as a legal entity which does not own any track, locomotives, or rolling stock. Frequently, paper railroads were set up as subsidiaries by larger parent railroads, or formerly existed and...
for its first four years since it lacked the money to actually build anything. That changed rapidly when Jack Hagerman, an Easterner
Eastern United States
The Eastern United States, the American East, or simply the East is traditionally defined as the states east of the Mississippi River. The first two tiers of states west of the Mississippi have traditionally been considered part of the West, but can be included in the East today; usually in...
who had already grown rich from Aspen silver, joined the railroad in 1887. By the end of that year the Midland had laid 250 miles (402.3 km) of standard gauge
Standard gauge
The standard gauge is a widely-used track gauge . Approximately 60% of the world's existing railway lines are built to this gauge...
track from Colorado Springs
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Colorado Springs is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and most populous city of El Paso County, Colorado, United States. Colorado Springs is located in South-Central Colorado, in the southern portion of the state. It is situated on Fountain Creek and is located south of the Colorado...
to Leadville. The Hagerman Tunnel
Hagerman Tunnel
Hagerman Tunnel was a 2,161 ft railroad tunnel crossing the Continental Divide in Colorado at an altitude of 11,528 ft ....
, at the time the world's highest, got it across the Divide to Glenwood Springs
Glenwood Springs, Colorado
The City of Glenwood Springs is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and the most populous city of Garfield County, Colorado, United States. The United States Census Bureau estimated that the city population was 8,564 in 2005...
, where it began building a narrow-gauge line to Aspen.
The previous year the Rio Grande had been forced into receivership
Receivership
In law, receivership is the situation in which an institution or enterprise is being held by a receiver, a person "placed in the custodial responsibility for the property of others, including tangible and intangible assets and rights." The receivership remedy is an equitable remedy that emerged in...
and sold to its bondholders as a result of growing too fast in its earlier years. William S. Jackson, its new president, had tried to convince the board to expand to Aspen ahead of the Midland, but they were too afraid of further financial failure. The next year a new president, David Moffat
David Moffat
David Halliday Moffat was an American financier and industrialist.Moffat was one of Denver's most important financiers and industrialists in late 19th and early 20th century Colorado, and he was responsible for the development of the Middle Park area. He served as president, treasurer and as a...
, changed their minds and the railroad began laying track on the north side of the Roaring Fork, where they did not have to worry about crossing Maroon Creek.
That decision proved to be beneficial in overcoming the Midland's lead and bringing the first train to Aspen in October 1887. At that point the Midland's crews had laid track almost as far as Maroon Creek. The railroad had hired renowned engineer and bridge designer George S. Morison to design and build the bridge using his innovative double-bent piers, first used on the Portage Viaduct in New York and later on the Boone Viaduct
Kate Shelley High Bridge
The Kate Shelley High Bridge is among the highest double-track railroad bridges in the United States. It is located approximately 3 miles west of the city of Boone, Iowa....
in Iowa. A timber trestle could have been built, but when the crews reached the creek in December they had to wait as the structural steel for Morison's bridge had been delayed leaving its fabricator back East. They continued working through the difficult mountain winter and completed the bridge in time for the Midland's first train to cross it and arrive in Aspen in February 1888. Although the Midland lost the race, its bridge, one of the last narrow-gauge trestle bridges built in Colorado that century, was more significant since it connected Aspen to its standard-gauge main line, the first built into the state's mountains. In 1890 the Rio Grande widened its branch to standard gauge. The two railroads competed vigorously as the city's population swelled to over 10,000. The Aspen City Railway, a mule-pulled streetcar
Horsecar
A horsecar or horse-drawn tram is an animal-powered streetcar or tram.These early forms of public transport developed out of industrial haulage routes that had long been in existence, and from the omnibus routes that first ran on public streets in the 1820s, using the newly improved iron or steel...
, connected the two depots.
Aspen's boom years ended in 1893, when Congress repealed the Sherman Silver Purchase Act
Sherman Silver Purchase Act
The Sherman Silver Purchase Act was enacted on July 14, 1890 as a United States federal law. It was named after its author, Senator John Sherman, an Ohio Republican, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee...
in response to that year's economic crisis
Panic of 1893
The Panic of 1893 was a serious economic depression in the United States that began in 1893. Similar to the Panic of 1873, this panic was marked by the collapse of railroad overbuilding and shaky railroad financing which set off a series of bank failures...
. With the market no longer artificially supported, the price of silver dropped and many of the city's mines closed, beginning a long period of the city's history known as "the quiet years". The railroad, which had recently built the Busk–Ivanhoe Tunnel, which improved service along its main line, continued operating even as it went bankrupt
Bankruptcy in the United States
Bankruptcy in the United States is governed under the United States Constitution which authorizes Congress to enact "uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States." Congress has exercised this authority several times since 1801, most recently by adopting the Bankruptcy...
in 1897, and reemerged as a new company with the same name. The second Colorado Midland went bankrupt again in 1919, as most of Aspen's remaining silver mines shut down. The bridge remained, unused.
1894–1946: Road redevelopment and quiet years
Ten years later, with the state expanding and improving its highway network in response to growing use of the automobile, the bridge was revived. After being widened with a paved timber deck and the outriggers to accommodate a road, it was reopened in 1929 for road traffic as part of the construction of Highway 82. The goal of the widening was to link Aspen with the state's growing road network and thus improve the prospects of the remaining silver miners. But the onset of the Great DepressionGreat Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
stifled any chance of that happening, and both the road and the railroad were primarily used to transport livestock raised by the area's ranchers to market.
The road and railroad would eventually figure in Aspen's economic rebirth, though not from the source originally envisioned. Near the end of the Depression, a local landowner showed some photographs of mountainside property he saw mining potential in to Ted Ryan, an heir to Thomas Fortune Ryan
Thomas Fortune Ryan
Thomas Fortune Ryan was a U.S. tobacco and transport magnate. Part of his fortune paid for the construction of the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Richmond, Virginia.-Early days:...
. He was a downhill skiing enthusiast who saw that the slopes would be ideal for development as a ski area. By the end of the decade the first crude ski lift
Ski Lift No. 1
The former Ski Lift No. 1 begins on Aspen Street in Aspen, Colorado, United States, and climbs up the slopes of Aspen Mountain. It was built in the late 1940s on the site of Aspen's first ski lift, known as the Boat Tow...
had been built, some Swiss ski instructors hired, and the first trails cut. Members of the Tenth Mountain Division who trained at nearby Camp Hale
Camp Hale
Camp Hale, between Red Cliff and Leadville in the Eagle River valley in Colorado, was a U.S. Army training facility constructed in 1942 for what became the 10th Mountain Division. It was named for General Irving Hale....
also came to appreciate Aspen's offerings. After the war, some came back to develop the ski resort established by Walter Paepcke
Walter Paepcke
Walter Paepcke was a U.S. industrialist and philanthropist prominent in the middle-20th century.-Biography:A longtime executive of the Chicago-based Container Corporation of America, Paepcke is best noted for his founding of the Aspen Institute and the Aspen Skiing Company in the early 1950s, both...
, the president of the Container Corporation of America
Container Corporation of America
Container Corporation of America was founded in 1926 and manufactures corrugated boxes. In 1968 CCA merged with Montgomery Ward & Company, Inc., in a move that was largely intended to thwart takeover bids against either company. MARCOR maintained separate management for the operations of each...
. He and his wife Elizabeth had found Aspen an ideal place to establish a music festival
Aspen Music Festival and School
The Aspen Music Festival and School, founded in 1949, is an internationally renowned classical music festival that presents music in an intimate, small-town setting...
, and invested heavily in rebuilding the city. Early in 1947, a special train brought dignitaries from out of town, including one of Colorado's U.S. senators and its governor-elect, to Aspen for a ceremony marking the opening of the new chairlift, at the time the world's longest. The breaking of a champagne bottle across the bottom station
Ship naming and launching
The ceremonies involved in naming and launching naval ships are based in traditions thousands of years old.-Methods of launch:There are three principal methods of conveying a new ship from building site to water, only two of which are called "launching." The oldest, most familiar, and most widely...
ended the quiet years.
1946–2003: Resort growth and stresses
The Rio Grande ran ski trains, which mixed passenger and freight traffic, up to Aspen from its main line at Glenwood SpringsGlenwood Springs, Colorado
The City of Glenwood Springs is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and the most populous city of Garfield County, Colorado, United States. The United States Census Bureau estimated that the city population was 8,564 in 2005...
. But many preferred to drive or be driven up Highway 82 from that point. The Aspen Skiing Company
Aspen Skiing Company
The Aspen Skiing Company, known locally as "Ski Co", is a commercial enterprise based in Aspen, Colorado in the United States.-History:Founded in 1946 by Walter Paepcke, it operates the Aspen/Snowmass resort complex, comprising four ski areas near the town of Aspen...
developed the greater Aspen/Snowmass
Aspen/Snowmass
Aspen/Snowmass is an expansive winter resort complex located in Pitkin County in western Colorado in the United States. Owned and operated by the Aspen Skiing Company it comprises four skiing/snowboarding areas on four adjacent mountains in the vicinity of the towns of Aspen and Snowmass Village...
complex, including the Buttermilk
Buttermilk (ski area)
Buttermilk Ski Area is frequently considered the easiest skiing mountain in Aspen, Colorado. Buttermilk has also been the host to the ESPN Winter X-games multiple times. It is also home to one of the best ski schools and children's programs in the United States. It contains three ski...
ski area just west of the bridge in 1958 and Snowmass
Snowmass (ski area)
Snowmass is a part of the Aspen/Snowmass ski resort complex located in western Colorado near the town of Aspen, Colorado. It is owned and operated by the Aspen Skiing Company. Snowmass is the largest of the four Aspen/Snowmass mountains, comprising . The mountain is most notable for its wide...
further west, both contributing to traffic over the bridge.
The bridge's importance as the gateway to Aspen increased further when Aspen-Pitkin County Airport
Aspen-Pitkin County Airport
-Commercial aircraft:* SkyWest Airlines flies the CRJ-700 for United Airlines* Republic Airlines flies the Dash 8-Q400 for Frontier Airlines-General aviation:General aviation services are provided by , the airport's sole fixed base operator.-External links:...
was built in 1953 just outside the city. Over the 1950s the population of Pitkin County grew 44%, due to migration to the upper Roaring Fork Valley, the second highest growth rate on Colorado's Western Slope
Western Slope
Western Slope may refer to:*The Western Slope region in the U.S. state of Colorado.*Western Slope, Jersey City: a section of Jersey City in the U.S. state of New Jersey....
. Ten years after the airport was opened, in 1963, the bridge was expanded to its current width to handle the traffic increase. Ranchers began selling their lands for skiing and housing development, some of which became the town of Snowmass
Snowmass Village, Colorado
Snowmass Village is a Home Rule Municipality in Pitkin County, Colorado, United States. The population was 1,822 at the 2000 census. A popular winter resort location for skiing and snowboarding, the town is best known as the location of the Snowmass ski area, the largest of the four nearby ski...
, where the workers in Aspen's hotels, restaurants and shops settled, eventually incorporating
Municipal corporation
A municipal corporation is the legal term for a local governing body, including cities, counties, towns, townships, charter townships, villages, and boroughs. Municipal incorporation occurs when such municipalities become self-governing entities under the laws of the state or province in which...
in the mid-1970s. Aspen became a destination for more than just skiing, and its population continued to grow.
In 1969 eight decades of rail transport to Aspen came to an end when the Rio Grande ran its last train from the city, a development that attracted less local attention than the first trains had. The tracks were removed and its depot demolished, leaving the bridge as the only significant remnant of Aspen's railroad era. When the railroad finally turned its Rio Grande Zephyr
Rio Grande Zephyr
The Rio Grande Zephyr was a passenger train operated by Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad between Denver, Colorado and Ogden, Utah in the Western United States. It operated from 1970 until 1983...
service between Denver
Denver, Colorado
The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...
and Salt Lake City over to Amtrak
Amtrak
The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak , is a government-owned corporation that was organized on May 1, 1971, to provide intercity passenger train service in the United States. "Amtrak" is a portmanteau of the words "America" and "track". It is headquartered at Union...
in 1983, the last private intercity rail route to do so, Amtrak did not restore service to Aspen. Service along the branch was finally abandoned completely when the last coal train left Carbondale
Carbondale, Colorado
Carbondale is a Home Rule Municipality in Garfield County, Colorado, United States. The population was 5,196 at the 2000 census. The town is located in the mid valley of the Roaring Fork River, downstream from Aspen and upstream from the mouth of the Roaring Fork at Glenwood Springs. The town...
in 1994, ending the Roaring Fork Valley's railroad era.
Colorado Department of Transportation
The Colorado Department of Transportation is the agency of state government responsible for transportation in the State of Colorado of the United States. CDOT is responsible for maintaining 9,144 mile highway system, including 3,429 bridges with over 28 billion vehicle miles of travel per year...
(CDOT) released a plan for a new bridge at the site. The twin three-span steel box girder concept did not meet with public approval due to concerns about its aesthetics, environmental impact and effect on other roads of traffic diverted during construction, since its closure would necessitate a long detour on local roads through Woody Creek
Woody Creek, Colorado
Woody Creek is a census-designated place and a U.S. Post Office located in Pitkin County, Colorado, United States part of the Roaring Fork Valley...
.
Drivers on the bridge also had to contend with pedestrian users. The roadway was too narrow to install a sidewalk or walkway. In 1998 a pedestrian bridge of eight 82 feet (25 m) segments was built immediately to the north. It was a temporary solution to the increasing traffic problem and was never very popular locally.
In the first years of the 21st century its sufficiency rating
National Bridge Inventory
The National Bridge Inventory is a database, compiled by the Federal Highway Administration, with information on all bridges and tunnels in the United States that have roads passing above or below. This is similar to the grade crossing identifier number database compiled by the Federal Railroad...
slipped to 9 out of a possible 100. It was temporarily closed to trucks while cracks in the masonry at the piers' base were repaired, restoring it to a sufficiency rating of 24. In 2004, after the municipal governments of Aspen and Snowmass
Snowmass Village, Colorado
Snowmass Village is a Home Rule Municipality in Pitkin County, Colorado, United States. The population was 1,822 at the 2000 census. A popular winter resort location for skiing and snowboarding, the town is best known as the location of the Snowmass ski area, the largest of the four nearby ski...
decided to fund the design work, CDOT announced that it was expediting the planning process and hoped that construction would begin the following year. Traffic could continue to use the old bridge in the meantime. There were some objections to the disruption that would be caused pedestrians, since the old pedestrian bridge would have to be dismantled.
2004–present: The new bridge
Ultimately, a cast-in-place segmentalSegmental bridge
As its name implies, a segmental bridge is a bridge built in short sections , i.e., one piece at a time, as opposed to traditional methods that build a bridge in very large sections...
concrete box girder design was decided on. The piers were tapered to echo the pinched-waist appearance of the old trestle next to it. Construction began in late 2005. Environmental considerations required that no more than 0.2 acres (809.4 m²) of the protected
Protected area
Protected areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognised natural, ecological and/or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which vary by level of protection depending on the enabling laws of each country or the regulations of the international...
wetland
Wetland
A wetland is an area of land whose soil is saturated with water either permanently or seasonally. Wetlands are categorised by their characteristic vegetation, which is adapted to these unique soil conditions....
below the bridge be disturbed during construction, and half that area be permanently disturbed for the bridge piers. The bridge was therefore built from the top down, using a balanced cantilever
Cantilever
A cantilever is a beam anchored at only one end. The beam carries the load to the support where it is resisted by moment and shear stress. Cantilever construction allows for overhanging structures without external bracing. Cantilevers can also be constructed with trusses or slabs.This is in...
construction method. To allow concrete construction to continue through the winter, the contractor insulated
Insulation
Insulation means:* Building insulation, added to buildings for comfort and energy efficiency* Soundproofing, also known as acoustic insulation, any means of reducing the intensity of sound...
the forms and ran glycol
Ethylene glycol
Ethylene glycol is an organic compound widely used as an automotive antifreeze and a precursor to polymers. In its pure form, it is an odorless, colorless, syrupy, sweet-tasting liquid...
-filled pipes along their exteriors.
By late 2007, two years after work started, the main span was done. The entire bridge was completed in early 2008. Up to that point, the 120-year–old bridge remained in use, the oldest still in use on Colorado's state highways.
After construction of new road approaches, including designated bus lanes, the new bridge opened in the middle of the year, its final cost almost $14 million. as the Colorado Department of Transportation had classified it as "unstable" at near capacity. After the new bridge (a concrete box girder bridge
Box girder bridge
A box girder bridge is a bridge in which the main beams comprise girders in the shape of a hollow box. The box girder normally comprises either prestressed concrete, structural steel, or a composite of steel and reinforced concrete. The box is typically rectangular or trapezoidal in cross-section...
) was completed, the existing bridge was left in place to honor its historic designation. In 2010, CDOT won a Bridge Award for Excellence from the National Segmental Bridge Institute.
In late 2010 a body found under the bridge was identified as George Aldrich, a ski-lift operator who had recently moved to Snowmass from Rhode Island. He had been missing for over two weeks since getting off a bus near the bridge following a night of drinking with friends in Aspen. The county coroner
Coroner
A coroner is a government official who* Investigates human deaths* Determines cause of death* Issues death certificates* Maintains death records* Responds to deaths in mass disasters* Identifies unknown dead* Other functions depending on local laws...
ruled that he had died from injuries sustained in a fall, which had likely occurred when a heavily intoxicated Aldrich accidentally stepped in the gap between the two bridges in the dark. CDOT later installed the safety netting between the two bridges to prevent similar accidents in the future.
Future
Rail transport may yet return to the bridge. In 1975 Aspen voters approved a referendumReferendum
A referendum is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal. This may result in the adoption of a new constitution, a constitutional amendment, a law, the recall of an elected official or simply a specific government policy. It is a form of...
permitting the city to endorse the county's application to the federal Urban Mass Transportation Authority
Federal Transit Administration
The Federal Transit Administration is an agency within the United States Department of Transportation that provides financial and technical assistance to local public transit systems. The FTA is one of ten modal administrations within the DOT...
for the funding of a light rail
Light rail
Light rail or light rail transit is a form of urban rail public transportation that generally has a lower capacity and lower speed than heavy rail and metro systems, but higher capacity and higher speed than traditional street-running tram systems...
system to connect downtown Aspen to the airport, and perhaps the Buttermilk
Buttermilk (ski area)
Buttermilk Ski Area is frequently considered the easiest skiing mountain in Aspen, Colorado. Buttermilk has also been the host to the ESPN Winter X-games multiple times. It is also home to one of the best ski schools and children's programs in the United States. It contains three ski...
ski area and eventually all the way to Glenwood Springs using either of the old rights-of-way. Later votes endorsed other aspects of the proposal. In 1997 the Federal Highway Administration
Federal Highway Administration
The Federal Highway Administration is a division of the United States Department of Transportation that specializes in highway transportation. The agency's major activities are grouped into two "programs," the Federal-aid Highway Program and the Federal Lands Highway Program...
and CDOT issued a Record of Decision
Record of Decision
A Record of Decision in the United States is the formal decision document which is recorded for the public.- Federal Register :The ROD is announced in a Notice of Availability in the Federal Register and is printed and made available to the public on the CRMP website.-USEPA :In the USEPA, the...
(ROD) in favor of a light-rail network and improvements to Highway 82, including the new bridge eventually built. The light rail line would likely use the old bridge and the old Midland route where it exists, since those tracks had already accounted for the steep grades in the valley, not a common problem with light-rail lines.
After the ROD, another referendum found city voters still supporting light rail but county voters opposed. The federal government nonetheless set aside funding for the segment to the airport, which would have been the first rural light rail line built in the U.S. Later referendums on bond issues to fund the city's portion failed, and after the failure of another referendum to build a monorail between Denver and ski resorts along I-70 the project did not seem likely to begin until money was available from another source.
Segments of the former pedestrian bridge are being reused. One was sold for scrap and four others were used as part of a pedestrian bridge across the Roaring Fork near Basalt. Three others are in storage; the county is considering using them to replace an old bridge along the Brush Creek Path in Snowmass.
See also
- List of bridges on the National Register of Historic Places in Colorado
- National Register of Historic Places listings in Pitkin County, ColoradoNational Register of Historic Places listings in Pitkin County, ColoradoThis is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Pitkin County, Colorado.This is intended to be a complete list of the properties and districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Pitkin County, Colorado, United States...