Foresthill Bridge

Foresthill Bridge

Southern face of the Auburn-Foresthill Bridge
Coordinates 38°55′21″N 121°02′19″W / 38.9224°N 121.0387°W / 38.9224; -121.0387Coordinates: 38°55′21″N 121°02′19″W / 38.9224°N 121.0387°W / 38.9224; -121.0387
Carries Automobiles, Pedestrian traffic
Crosses North Fork American River
Locale Sierra Nevada, California
Characteristics
Total length 2,428 feet (740 m)
Height 522 feet (159 m)
Longest span 862 feet (263 m)
Clearance above 730 feet (220 m)
History
Opened 1973
Statistics
Daily traffic low

The Foresthill Bridge over the North Fork American River is the highest (deck height) bridge in the U.S. state of California and the fourth highest in the United States. It is also sometimes referred to as the Auburn-Foresthill Bridge or the Auburn Bridge.

Originally constructed to accommodate the unbuilt Auburn Dam, the bridge stands 731 feet above the riverbed. It was fabricated in 1971 by Kawasaki Heavy Industries in Japan, built by Willamette Western Contractors, and opened in 1973. The bridge spans the North Fork of the American River in Placer County between the city of Auburn and the town of Foresthill in the Sierra Nevada foothills.[1] Pedestrians can walk the length of the bridge in both directions. There is anti-Auburn Dam graffiti, showing protest of the planned dam, on the bridge's underside. A seismic retrofit project was begun in January 2011 and will cost an estimated $74.4 million .[2][3] The original bridge cost less than $13 million.

The bridge can be seen in the beginning of the action movie xXx [4] in which Vin Diesel's character Xander Cage is seen driving a stolen red Chevrolet Corvette off of it, then jumping from the car mid-flight and parachuting to his accomplices at the bottom of the American River Canyon. It also appears in a montage sequence toward the end of the romantic comedy The Ugly Truth.[5]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Auburn-Foresthill Bridge at Structurae
  2. ↑ Auburn Journal. "Placer supes OK $65 million in Foresthill Bridge contracts". Retrieved 2011-01-08.
  3. ↑ "Placer County:Foresthill Bridge Project". Retrieved 2011-04-02.
  4. ↑ xXx (2002) - Trivia
  5. ↑ Auburn Journal. "Foresthill Bridge shot spans scenic moment for new film". Retrieved 2010-08-21.
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