An Iconic Bridge

  There are two attractions that come to mind when most people think of Yuma. One is the
Old Yuma Territorial Prison, which is now a state park, and the other is the Ocean to Ocean Highway Bridge. The Ocean to Ocean Highway Bridge was the first automobile bridge over the Colorado River. It opened to traffic in 1914. Since this bridge was the only river bridge over a huge area, it forced many people who were driving from east to west or west to east, to make a big detour to the Yuma area so they could cross the Colorado River safely on a bridge. At the time, the Colorado was a huge, wide, deep and cantankerous river that was very difficult to cross. That is no longer the case, since the river has been over allocated and over irrigated to provide water to a thirsty population in an arid climate.
  Nevertheless, this is still an iconic bridge and is a marvel of early bridge building techniques. 
  The Ocean to Ocean Highway Bridge and the adjacent railroad bridge, were built where the Colorado River squeezes between bluffs on each side, at least it used to squeeze between bluffs.
The bridge is 444 feet long, but these days, the majority of that span is over a dry riverbed with just a narrow stream snaking through the historic river channel. The bridge opened to automobile traffic in 1914. It was completely rehabilitated in 1943, during World War II, as a  "national necessity" because, at the time, a major federal highway went over the bridge, providing a crucial link between California and the rest of the nation. Over the years, this bridge was bypassed by a new U.S. Highway 80 bridge, farther west on North 4th Avenue and then it was replaced again by the towering, twin bridges of Interstate 8 a short distance away.  The bridge was eventually closed to automobile traffic in 1988 and became a pedestrian-only bridge. I have heard conflicting stories about why the bridge was closed. I have been told that it was functionally obsolete since there were newer and wider bridges nearby, I was told that the physical condition of the bridge deteriorated to the point that it had to be closed due to safety concerns and I was also told that there was nothing structurally wrong with it, it was just too narrow to accommodate modern traffic. After all the bridge was only 16 feet, 9 inches wide, barely wide enough for two cars. In that era, bridges were typically narrow, but the standard width was 18 feet, so this bridge was narrower than most bridges of its day. It was impossible to two trucks, or buses, to pass each other on this extremely narrow bridge. Maybe all three scenarios played a part in the bridge's closing, that is my personal opinion. At any rate, the bridge was reopened to vehicular traffic in 2002 after an extensive rehabilitation. I remember reading about the rehabilitation project in the newspaper when it was still in the planning stages. The California side of the river is the Fort Yuma Indian Reservation and an Indian casino had already opened for business while the bridge was closed. The hotel/casino is just a short distance north of the bridge. The reopening of the bridge greatly facilitated traffic flow to and from the hotel/casino to Yuma and from the reservation, in general to Yuma. Although the bridge is carrying automobile traffic again, there is one major difference. It is open to only one direction of traffic at a time. Traffic goes down the middle of the bridge while both sides are used as pedestrian walkways. The direction of traffic flow is controlled by traffic lights on each end of the bridge.  The traffic alternates between northbound and southbound, depending on who has the green light.
  One iconic feature of this century old bridge is the fact that the words "OCEAN TO OCEAN BRIDGE, YUMA" are on the side of this iron truss bridge and the letters are lit up at night.