Ash Avenue Bridge - Tempe

DateOctober 1984

MediumEmulsion on paper

Dimensions5 x 5 in. (12.7 x 12.7 cm)

ClassificationsDocumentary Artifact

Catalog number2001.19.4286

DescriptionView of the Tempe State Bridge, better known as the Ash Avenue Bridge, was the first major highway bridge crossing the Salt River. When construction began in 1911, labor was provided by prisoners from the Arizona Territorial Prison in Florence. The bridge was completed in 1913. It provided the first dependable crossing between Phoenix and Tempe and Mesa for wagons and automobiles. Unfortunately, the bridge was obsolete by the time it opened. It had been designed more for wagons than for automobiles, and it was too narrow to carry two lanes of traffic. In 1916, a flood weakened one of the supporting arches and seriously damaged the bridge. After the Arizona Highway Department built a new bridge (the Mill Avenue Bridge) in 1931, the Ash Avenue Bridge was no longer used. The Ash Avenue Bridge was demolished in 1991.
The film negative of this photograph is housed in box 2G8-E.

Status

Not on view