Skip to main content

Bridge Monday; Antelope Island Causeway (former Utah State Route 127)

Back in 2015 I was ending a long road trip in the Northwest Region on of the Continental United States and had an extra day to kill in the Salt Lake City area.  That being the case I decided to head out to Antelope Island in the middle of Great Salt Lake on the Antelope Island Causeway.


Antelope Island is the largest within Great Salt Lake at 42 square miles and is entirely located within Davis County.  Antelope Island is home to Antelope Island State Park which was created in 1969.  The creation of Antelope Island State Park led to the development of the first Antelope Island Causeway which was located over Farmington Bay just as the current structure.  The first Antelope Island Causeway was part of third Utah State Route 127 which was created in 1965 and still exists between UT 110 and UT 108.

The waters of Great Salt Lake fluctuates wildly depending on winter rainfall.  Great Salt Lake has been known to shrink to only 950 Square Miles in dry years and as high as 3,300 Square Miles during the wettest years.  In 1983 the first Antelope Island Causeway closed due to flooding and needed to be replaced.  The Utah State Legislature approved funding to build the current Antelope Island Causeway in 1991 and the structure was opened in 1993.  The current Antelope Island Causeway is seven miles in length and is maintained by the Utah Division of Parks and Recreation.

From the western end of the Antelope Island Causeway much of Great Salt Lake can be seen.  2015 was a relatively wet year which is reflected in the depth of the waters around Antelope Island.









Antelope Island State Park is mostly known once privately held buffalo herd and the name antelopes.  The ruins of the buffalo ranch on Antelope Island date back to the 1890s and were the result of failed homesteading.







Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Old River Lock & Control Structure (Lettsworth, LA)

  The Old River Control Structure (ORCS) and its connecting satellite facilities combine to form one of the most impressive flood control complexes in North America. Located along the west bank of the Mississippi River near the confluence with the Red River and Atchafalaya River nearby, this structure system was fundamentally made possible by the Flood Control Act of 1928 that was passed by the United States Congress in the aftermath of the Great Mississippi River Flood of 1927 however a second, less obvious motivation influenced the construction here. The Mississippi River’s channel has gradually elongated and meandered in the area over the centuries, creating new oxbows and sandbars that made navigation of the river challenging and time-consuming through the steamboat era of the 1800s. This treacherous area of the river known as “Turnbull’s Bend” was where the mouth of the Red River was located that the upriver end of the bend and the Atchafalaya River, then effectively an outflow

Interstate 10S and the original Interstate 110 in California

Interstate 10S is a short spur of Interstate 10 along San Bernardino Freeway in downtown Los Angeles.  Interstate 10S begins at the Santa Ana Freeway (US Route 101) and extends east to Interstate 5 where it merges into mainline Interstate 10.  Interstate 10S is one of the oldest freeway segments in Los Angeles having been part of US Routes 60, 70 and 99 when it was part of the corridor of the Ramona Expressway.  The current corridor of Interstate 10S was assigned as Chargeable Corridor H following the passage of the 1956 Federal Highway Aid Act.  Interstate 110 was a short-lived designation which comprised the segment San Bernardino Freeway from US Route 101 to Interstate 5 between 1964-1968.  The original Interstate 110 was dropped as a Chargeable Corridor during 1965 and consolidated as Interstate 10S during 1968.   The original Interstate 110 can be seen as the blog cover photo as it was featured on the 1964 Division of Highways Map.  Below the entire 0.65-mile length of Interstate

Vicksburg Bridge (Vicksburg, MS)

  Located a few hundred feet downriver from the Old Vicksburg Bridge, the Vicksburg Bridge, or the “New” Bridge, serves as the city’s vehicular crossing of the Mississippi River on the main highway connecting Vicksburg with northeastern Louisiana to the west and the state capital of Jackson to the east. The completion of the original Vicksburg Bridge in 1930 was seen as a huge success and the bridge proved to be a profitable entity for both road and railroad interests along the path of the Dixie Overland Highway and the subsequent US Highway 80 corridor. In the years after the creation of the National Interstate Highway System, planning commenced on a new bridge at the site that would relieve the congestion on the existing bridge while providing for a more modern crossing of the river that would be safe for all vehicles. The construction of the new bridge at Vicksburg was completed in 1973 and its design intentionally mimics that of its predecessor nearby. This was due in large part