Skip to main content

Bridge Monday; the Roosevelt Lake Bridge and Roosevelt Dam

Back in the early 2010s I frequently visited Gila County Arizona.  Often my travel took me up Arizona State Route 88 (usually for fun) and Arizona State Route 188.  The junction of AZ 88 and AZ 188 holds what was two significant bridging structures of Roosevelt Lake; the Roosevelt Dam and Roosevelt Lake Arch Bridge.


AZ 88 is one of the oldest State Highways in Arizona dating back to 1927.  While the highway was originally intended to be signed as AZ 66 the designation of AZ 88 was ultimately chosen due to US 66 being assigned over what was intended to be US 60 in Arizona.  As originally signed AZ 88 stretched from US Route 80 in Apache Junction east to the first US 180 in Globe.  By 1927 Roosevelt Dam was long completed since 1911 as it was the signature structure of the Salt River Project.  Roosevelt Dam was used as a bridging structure from AZ 88 north to the road to Payson.  This 1927 highway map of Arizona shows the location of Roosevelt Dam on the initial alignment of AZ 88.


Construction of Roosevelt Dam began along the Salt River in Gila County by 1903, as stated above the structure was completed by 1911.  Roosevelt Dam and the Salt River Project were part of the 1902 Reclamation Act which paved the way for later more well known public works projects such as the Hoover Dam.  Roosevelt Dam as originally completed was a completely masonry dam and was the largest of it's type at the time.  


According to Arizonaroads.com the route of AZ 188 from AZ 88 at Roosevelt Dam north to Payson was designated in 1958.  At the time the junction of AZ 88 and AZ 188 was at Roosevelt Dam.   AZ 188 can be viewed in it's originally configuration crossing Roosevelt Dam on the 1961 State Highway Map.



In 1989 an expansion project to raise Roosevelt Dam from 280 feet to 357 began.  Said project was to expand Roosevelt Dam via use of a new masonry cover over the original dam structure.  The Roosevelt Dam expansion project required AZ 188 be shifted onto a new bridge over Roosevelt Lake.  The new Roosevelt Lake Arch bridge was completed by 1992 and remains one of the more scenic bridges in Arizona. 


According to Arizonaroads.com AZ 188 was shifted over what was AZ 88 east of Roosevelt Dam to Globe by 2000.  The change was apparently instigated due to a new ADOT policy about having a highway have both terminus points at the same route.  






Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Ghost Town Tuesday; Mannfield, FL and the stairway to Hell

Back in 2015 I went searching the Lecanto Sand Hills for the original Citrus County Seat known as Mannfield.  Unlike Centrailia in Hernando County and Fivay in Pasco County I did find something worth seeing. Mannfield is located in the Lecanto Sand Hill section of Withlacoochee State Forest somewhat east of the intersection of Citrus County Route 491 and Mansfield Road. Mannfield was named after Austin Mann and founded in Hernando County in 1884 before Citrus County Split away.  In 1887 Citrus County was split from northern Hernando County while Pasco County was spun off to the south.  Mannfield was selected as the new Citrus County seat due to it being near the county geographic center.  Reportedly Mannfield had as many as 250 people when it was the County Seat.  The town included various businesses one might include at the time, even a sawmill which was common for the area.  In 1891 Citrus County voted to move it's seat to Inverness which set the s...

Interstate 40's Tumultuous Ride Through the Pigeon River Gorge

In the nearly 60 years Interstate 40 has been open to traffic through the Pigeon River Gorge in the mountains of Western North Carolina, it has been troubled by frequent rockslides and damaging flooding, which has seen the over 30-mile stretch through North Carolina and Tennessee closed for months at a time. Most recently, excessive rainfall from Hurricane Helene in September 2024 saw sections of Interstate 40 wash away into a raging Pigeon River. While the physical troubles of Interstate 40 are well known, how I-40 came to be through the area is a tale of its own. Interstate 40 West through Haywood County near mile marker 10. I-40's route through the Pigeon River Gorge dates to local political squabbles in the 1940s and a state highway law written in 1921. A small note appeared in the July 28, 1945, Asheville Times. It read that the North Carolina State Highway Commission had authorized a feasibility study of a "...water-level road down [the] Pigeon River to the Tennessee l...

The mystery of Hawaii Route 144 and temporary Hawaii Route 11

The 1959 Gousha Road map of Hawaii features two largely unknown references in the form of Hawaii Route 144 and Temporary Hawaii Route 11.  Both corridors are shown running from the boundary of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park east to Glenwood via Volcano Village.  At the time Hawaii Route 11 was using the so-called "Volcano Road" which was constructed as a modernization of Mamalahoa Highway during 1927-1928.  This blog will examine the two map references and will attempt to determine what they might indicate.  The mystery of Hawaii Route 144 and Temporary Hawaii Route 11 Hawaii Route 11 is part of Mamalahoa Highway (the Hawaii Belt Road) and is the longest Hawaiian State Route at 121.97 miles.  The highway begins at the mutual junction of Hawaii Route 19 and Hawaii Route 190 in Kailua-Kona.  From Kailua-Kona the routing of Hawaii Route 11 crosses the volcanic landscapes of southern side of the Big Island.  Hawaii Route 11 terminates at Hawaii Route 19/Ka...