Cabrillo Bridge
| Cabrillo Bridge | |
|---|---|
The bridge in 1916, looking east toward Balboa Park, with pond and the "Camino Cabrillo" road underneath.
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| Coordinates | 32°43′53″N 117°09′15″W / 32.731412°N 117.154185°WCoordinates: 32°43′53″N 117°09′15″W / 32.731412°N 117.154185°W |
| Carries | El Prado |
| Crosses | Cabrillo Canyon |
| Locale | San Diego, California |
| Characteristics | |
| Design | Concrete, steel, wood |
| Total length | approx. 450 feet (140 m) |
| Height | 120 feet (37 m) |
| History | |
| Designer | Frank P. Allen, Jr. Thomas B. Hunter |
| Construction end | 1914 |
| Construction cost | $250,000 ($5,918,586 today) |
| Opened | 1914 |
The Cabrillo Bridge in San Diego, California is a historic pedestrian and automobile bridge providing access between Balboa Park and the Uptown area of San Diego. It was built for the 1915 Panama–California Exposition. The bridge was nominated for the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.
The Cabrillo Bridge is one of several access routes to the cluster of museums located at the historic "El Prado Complex" (the former 1915 Panama Exposition site), which is east of the bridge in the middle of Balboa Park and continuing to a point near the Bea Evenson Fountain (and former trolley stop) just west of Park Boulevard.
The east-west street atop the two-lane bridge is called "El Prado". Many people mistakenly refer to the street as Laurel Street, which is a continuation of El Prado but ends at Sixth Avenue, and some refer to the bridge as the Laurel Street Bridge. Sixth Avenue forms the western boundary of Balboa Park. Laurel Street continues west from Sixth Avenue to form the southern border of San Diego's International Airport, Lindbergh Field, and ends at Harbor Drive on San Diego Bay.
The structure is easily seen from the scenic Cabrillo Freeway (State Route 163), which is located on the floor of the canyon below. Construction of the freeway through the canyon below the bridge was completed in February 1948. However, traffic on the bridge is not visible from the freeway due to the unusual height of the bridge. The height is dictated entirely by the topography of the canyon. El Prado crosses the bridge at the same level as the ground on either end of the bridge, while State Route 163 passes beneath it at approximately the level of the original canyon floor. There is no direct access route between State Route 163 and Laurel Street or El Prado.
The bridge was built for the Panama–California Exposition of 1915. It provided the main access across Cabrillo Canyon (formerly known as Pound Canyon, which was used to hold cattle and horses in the late 19th century). An initial design for the bridge was developed by Bertram Goodhue that featured three large arches. The design was to be similar to Toledo, Spain's Alcántara Bridge. However, Frank P. Allen, Jr. convinced Balboa Park commissioners to choose a cheaper design by Thomas B. Hunter of San Francisco that looked similar to other bridges in Mexico and Spain. The innovative design featured a multiple-arched cantilever structure, the first such bridge in California.
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