Navajo Bridge

1929

It opened in 1929 as the Grand Canyon Bridge

The first Navajo Bridge opened to traffic on January 12, 1929, and was dedicated as the Grand Canyon Bridge on June 14 and 15 of that year. The Flagstaff paper proclaimed it the biggest news in Southwest history. The state changed its name to Navajo Bridge in 1934.

The ferry

Before it, a ferry that floods and storms often stopped

Before the bridge, one of the only crossings of the Colorado between Arizona and Utah was about 5 miles upstream, where Lees Ferry service had run since 1873. By the 1920s cars were using the ferry, but it was not considered safe or reliable, because bad weather and flooding often stopped it.

The arch

A steel arch 467 feet above the river, with a narrow road

Construction began in 1927. The bridge is 834 feet long, a steel arch 467 feet above the Colorado, with a roadway 18 feet wide. A wider roadway was considered and rejected, because it would have needed a costly third arch and the vehicles of the time did not need a wider road.

467feet above the Colorado River

1995

A twin opened in 1995, and the old bridge was kept for walkers

By 1984 the traffic was too great for the original bridge, and its sharp approach corners were a hazard. Widening it was rejected as not enough, so a new steel arch bridge, similar in look, was built beside it and finished in May 1995. The original is still open to people on foot and on horseback, with an interpretive center on the west side.

A fall

A worker fell 467 feet to the river during construction

During construction a worker, Lane McDaniels, died after falling 467 feet to the Colorado River below. Supervisors had rejected the idea of rigging safety netting, believing that it would catch fire from falling hot rivets.