National Register #11000214
Healdsburg Memorial Bridge
Healdsburg Avenue Over Russian River
Healdsburg
Built 1921

The construction of Memorial Bridge in 1921 characterized an era beginning in the 1870s and ending in the 1930s in which steel-truss bridges morphed as the need for heavier and longer spans grew. Its construction also helped open automobile travel in Northern California and aided development of recreation in the Russian River area.

Memorial Bridge, designed locally and built under the direction of the American Bridge Co., was the first steel structure over the Russian River. It stands at a wide crossing established in the 1850s by early Sonoma County settlers who forded the river at a low point on the south bank.

The bridge has survived at least five major floods that brought water up to its deck.

Memorial Bridge is rare among American steel truss bridges. Its intricate Pennsylvania through-truss design, using extra diagonal bracings to relieve stress, is a throwback to an evolutionary era of steel truss bridges when engineers needed stronger structures to accommodate wide crossings and heavy loads at affordable cost.

Hundreds of Pennsylvania through-truss bridges were built, but only a handful handful have survived. Memorial Bridge may be one of only thirteen of its type still open to vehicles in the United States and just two in California.