The Shaffer Bridge in Merced County is an example of some of
the earlier bridges constructed for automobile traffic in California.
When I first saw this bridge, it was closed to motorized
traffic. If someone traveling Oakdale Road heading north from Highway 59, it
was necessary to detour south as far as meadow Drive, travel west for several
miles, and then turn northwest on Santa Fe Drive. By that point, it was easier
to travel to the town Hughson and cut off to go to Oakdale rather than snake
back through the rural countryside east of Santa Fe Drive to once again connect
with Oakdale Road.
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| Merced River and Oakdale Road bridge as seen from the 1912 Shaffer Bridge |
In 2003, they did complete a new bridge over the Merced
River, but they left the old bridge in place.
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| Merced River as seen from the 1912 Shaffer Bridge |
According to the California Department of Transportation
Digital Collection website, “The
Shaffer Bridge (39C0013) is a steel, pin-connected Pratt through-truss bridge
with three spans measuring 152 feet long each. The bridge is an early example
of work completed by master bridge builder Judson Manufacturing Company; the
company was later known as Judson Pacific Murphy.
The Judson Manufacturing Company was founded in 1882 with
operations in Emeryville and Oakland California. It was comprised of bridge and
structural steel shops, a machine shop, foundry and pattern shop and bolt and
nut shops.
The Shaffer Bridge is the only metal truss bridge remaining
in Merced County. It is currently used as a pedestrian bridge. The original
timber decking has been replaced.”
The reason this bridge built in 1912 has been preserved is
because it was determined to be eligible by the Keeper of the National Register
in the Caltrans [California Department of Transportation( 1985 Historic Metal
Truss Bridges in California Thematic Resources study. It is designated as a
Point of Interest.
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| Aerial earth view of the Shaffer Bridge (left) and the Oakdale Road bridge courtesy of Google and USDA Farm Service Agency |
This bridge is in eastern Merced County and crosses the
Merced River. The area is remote farmland, and sparsely populated. To better
understand why this road from Oakdale to Highway 59, the road joining Merced to
Snelling, it helps to know a little history of the area.
All of Merced County was once part of Mariposa County which
was created in 1850 as one of California’s original counties. What is now a
small rural county in the western foothills of the Sierra-Nevada mountains rose
to prominence because of its location at the southern end of the Mother Lode gold
mining during the California Gold Rush. As the largest county in the state, it
was soon broken down into smaller counties, one of them being Merced County.
Merced County was formed in 1855. Its first county seat until
1872 was Snelling on the far eastern portion of the county. This community grew
due to gold dredging in the Merced River between Merced Falls and Snelling as
well as cattle and farming operations. It was only after two major railroads
built lines through what is now Merced created a more convenient and
cost-effective means to transport cattle and wheat that the population and
economic center of the county shifted to that city. One of the highways
connecting Snelling and Merced is the southern terminus for Oakdale Road, which
connects Oakdale, another east San Joaquin Valley city in Stanislaus County to
the north.
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| 1912 Regal Model H Underslung Touring Car |
The automobile industry was still in its infancy in 1912,
but there was a push for better roads as a means of transporting people and
goods and services between communities which were originally developed in the
eastern sections of the two counties. Oakdale Road paralleled the
Oakdale-Montpelier Railroad (more in a future blog post) which transported
passengers and freight until the 1940’s. So, although today, this one of only a
handful of bridges that crosses the Merced River in Merced County, appears to
have been constructed out on the middle of nowhere, at one time it connected
some of the prominent communities in the region.
Zina
Abbott is the pen name used by Robyn Echols for her historical novels. Her first
three novellas in the Eastern Sierra Brides 1884 series, Big Meadows Valentine, A Resurrected Heart, and Her
Independent Spirit were published by Prairie Rose Publications. Her
novelette, He Is a Good Man, was published in the Lariats,
Letters and Lace anthology.
Please
tweet this blog post:
1912
SHAFFER BRIDGE @ZinaAbbott- connects Merced’s past and present. #SweetAmerSweethearts
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Thanks for the glimpse into the history, Zina! Engineering of roads and freeways has taken such a massive leap in the last 100 years to keep up with the growing traffic. I marvel at some of the huge interchanges between freeways in California--they are things of beauty the way the off ramps and on ramps all swirl around each other.
ReplyDeleteTook some pics today of the concrete bases still standing from the original trestle going over the creek, just north of the bridge still standing. I wonder if there are pics of the original trestle somewhere??
ReplyDeletenot north but rather, west.
DeleteThe Hatfield Bridge Northeast of Newman is another metal truss bridge in Merced County that has also been bypassed and preserved.
ReplyDeleteI remember riding across this old black iron bridge as a kid with my family. It scared hell out of me...it was 1968...on our way from Waterford where we lived to Ballico.
ReplyDeleteI remember...the Merced River was volumous...seemed like a low irrigation dam just below old bridge; so water eas rather deep ( and close to lower deck of bridge). Perhaps nearby,- was "Snelling Park"? I think we stopped there and rented 'pedal boats' upon the water.
I was also dared by my older sister to walk across the massive, high and long old railroad bridge at Waterford, Ca. That deck truss steel bridge spanned the Tuolumme River below Waterford. I was about nine. I crawled across from tie to tie, as it was air gaps in between, and no handrails on sides. Well over 100 feet above river.
In late 60's trains once in a while made the trip down to Waterford from Oakdale, and seldom ventured south across this big bridge.
A famed New York marketed winery, in little Waterford; Hershey's chocolate plant & Hunt's cannery in Oakdale, and the then busy mile-long ammo plant humming near Riverbank, Ca. during the 1960's Central Valley covered with peach, walnut and almond orchards.
I remember riding across this old black iron bridge as a kid with my family. It scared hell out of me...it was 1968...on our way from Waterford where we lived to Ballico.
ReplyDeleteI remember...the Merced River was volumous...seemed like a low irrigation dam just below old bridge; so water eas rather deep ( and close to lower deck of bridge). Perhaps nearby,- was "Snelling Park"? I think we stopped there and rented 'pedal boats' upon the water.
I was also dared by my older sister to walk across the massive, high and long old railroad bridge at Waterford, Ca. That deck truss steel bridge spanned the Tuolumme River below Waterford. I was about nine. I crawled across from tie to tie, as it was air gaps in between, and no handrails on sides. Well over 100 feet above river.
In late 60's trains once in a while made the trip down to Waterford from Oakdale, and seldom ventured south across this big bridge.
A famed New York marketed winery, in little Waterford; Hershey's chocolate plant & Hunt's cannery in Oakdale, and the then busy mile-long ammo plant humming near Riverbank, Ca. during the 1960's Central Valley covered with peach, walnut and almond orchards.
I remember driving across this bridge painted black in late 60's as a kid. It was really scary for me, as the river dammed just below it was then very deep and large.
ReplyDelete