Generals' Highway Stone Bridges

Generals' Highway Stone Bridges
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. Historic district
General's Highway Stone Bridge
Nearest city	Mineral King, California
Coordinates	36°36′27″N 118°44′46″W
Built	1930
Architect	Multiple; National Park Service
Architectural style	National Park Service Rustic
NRHP reference No.	78000284
Added to NRHP	September 13, 1978

The Generals' Highway Stone Bridges, built in 1930, are part of the Generals' Highway from the General Grant Grove of giant sequoias in Kings Canyon National Park (then called General Grant National Park) through Sequoia National Park. One bridge spans the Marble Fork of the Kaweah River in a wooded setting, while the other, similar bridge spans Clover Creek in a bare canyon.

Design

The bridges are typically reinforced concrete barrel arches with uncoursed stone facing on the sides, in a National Park Service Rustic style. The concrete is not visible to passersby, whose attention is taken by the mass of the masonry. Of the two, the Clover Creek bridge is the more impressive, due to its setting. The bridges were designed by the National Park Service Branch of Plans and Designs in cooperation with the Bureau of Public Roads.

The design inspiration for the bridges was the Westchester County, New York parkway system, which included the Bronx River and Hutchinson River parkways. The National Park Service sent two designers to observe the construction, and one of these, John Wosky, was the designer of the Generals' Highway bridges. Wosky developed the architectural design of the Marble Fork bridge in the fall of 1928, and structural plans were developed by the Bureau of Public Roads in January 1929. The Clover Creek bridge was designed in 1930, with construction the same year on both bridges. The contractor for both bridges was W. A. Bechtel.

Drawing from the Historic American Engineering Record

See also

• List of bridges documented by the Historic American Engineering Record in California

External links

Media related to Generals' Highway Stone Bridges at Wikimedia Commons

• Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) documentation, filed under Three Rivers, Tulare County, CA:
  • HAER No. CA-140-A, "Generals Highway, Lodgepole Bridge, Spanning Marble Fork of Kaweah River, approximately 21 miles northwest of Ash Mountain Entrance", 7 photos, 6 data pages, 1 photo caption page
  • HAER No. CA-140-B, "Generals Highway, Clover Creek Bridge, Spanning Clover Creek, approximately 22 miles northeast of Ash Mountain Entrance", 5 photos, 1 color transparency, 7 data pages, 2 photo caption pages