Gribblenation

Back in 2012 I visited the Gillespie Dam Bridge located southwest of Phoenix in rural Maricopa County along the Gila River. The Gillespie Dam Bridge is a truss bridge located directly south of the failed 1921 Gillespie Dam on the Gila River.  The Gillespie Dam Bridge was completed in August of 1927 and was part of early US Route 80.  The Gillespie Dam Bridge is 1,662 feet long, has a road deck 25 feet wide, has 9 spans, and 8 pilings in the Gila River Bed.  The Gillespie Dam Bridge saw service on US Route 80 until the highway was shifted eastward in 1956 to the current Arizona State Route 85 corridor. The Gillespie Dam Bridge actually survived a breach of it's namesake dam.  The Gillespie Dam is a 1,700 foot wide concrete arch structure which was completed in 1921 as stated above.  The Gillespie Dam was originally designed for cars to travel over, but with the spill-over design it meant that it couldn't be crossed when the reservoir topped out.  The ...

Back in 2012 I visited the Colossal Cave which is located on an old alignment of the Old Spanish Auto Trail north of Vail. There is a signed section of the Old Spanish Trail which runs from the entrance to the Colossal Cave Mountain Park northwest to Broadway Boulevard in Tucson. I'm not certain when the Colossal Cave segment of Old Spanish Trail was in use due to maps from the time frame being sparse.  What I do know is that US 80 didn't use the alignment but instead was on Old Vail Road which can be seen on this 1927 regional map. Colossal Cave can actually be seen present on the map north of Vail. 1927 Four Corners Regional Map   Colossal Cave was originally used by several Southern Arizonan tribes before being rediscovered in 1879.  Colossal Cave is considered to be a dry cave and has a constant temperature close to 70F.  The main cave is closed to access aside from a guided tour. I'm fairly certain that the Old Spanish Trai...

Zero milestone of the Old Spanish Trail Back in early March 2013, I embarked on a road trip where I visited some of the historic coastal cities of the Southeastern United States. Norfolk, Virginia, Charleston, South Carolina, Savannah, Georgia and St. Augustine, Florida were the cities that I had stopped in along my way down south. Upon arriving in the main historic district of St. Augustine, I had parked my car and started heading to the historic Castillo de San Marcos National Monument , which is the site of a historic fort that was originally constructed by the colonial era Spanish. During my walk to the fort, I had walked past an old stone sphere, just a few blocks north of the historic downtown area. Upon further investigation, I had found that it was the Zero Milestone of the Old Spanish Trail , which was a highway through the southern tier of states in the United States of America, stretching from St. Augustine all the way to San Diego, California . The Old Spanish T...