Old Mill Ave Bridge in Tempe - 90th Ann. Dedication/Mill Ave. Bridge Walking Tour

Описание: Tempe Historic Preservation Officer Zachary Lechner will lead people on a walk to the bridge where a plaque honoring Hoffman is being installed. May is also National Historic Preservation Month.

Join Mayor Corey Woods and the Tempe City Council in celebrating the 90th Anniversary of the dedication of the Tempe Bridge, also known as the Old Mill Avenue Bridge, and Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) Bridge Engineer Ralph Hoffman.

Celebrate the bridge and its engineer on May 1st 2023
A short ceremony honoring Hoffman and the bridge will take place on the front patio of the Hayden House, 1 W. Rio Salado Parkway on Monday, May 1 at 11 a.m. It is free and open to the public. After the ceremony, Tempe Historic Preservation Officer Zachary Lechner will lead people on a walk to the bridge where a plaque honoring Hoffman is being installed. May is also National Historic Preservation Month.

Hoffman served as the Arizona State Bridge Engineer from 1923 to 1954. He designed the Old Mill Avenue Bridge, the Navajo Bridge at Marble Canyon, the original Pinto Creek Bridge and many others around the state.

The Old Mill Avenue Bridge is a showcase for Hoffman’s talent. Thanks to Hoffman’s solid design, while other Salt River bridges failed during floods, the Mill Avenue Bridge survived.
Its beauty and longevity have made it a beloved Tempe icon. It’s been depicted in countless paintings and photographs and is instantly recognizable.

“I can’t imagine what Tempe would be like today had the Mill Avenue Bridge not been built,” said Mayor Corey Woods. “Like the Hayden Flour Mill and the Hayden House, the bridge is a touchstone to our past.”

Hoffman was proud of the creation back in the day. When it opened in 1931, he said, “The completion of the new Tempe Bridge, Arizona's largest and most magnificent causeway, adds another triumph of engineering skill and closes another chapter in the history of Arizona highway construction.”

The Old Mill Avenue Bridge is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and the Tempe Historic Property Register. The bridge is significant for both its method of construction and its artistic design. It is a poured concrete structure with 10 arched spans and measures 1,577 feet, including approach roadways.

The Old Mill Avenue Bridge was the largest bridge in Arizona when it opened. It cost $518,788 - more than $10 million in today’s dollars - to build.
The bridge was constructed at almost the same spot that Hayden’s Ferry had used nearly 60 years earlier. It filled a growing need - allowing larger numbers of automobiles to cross the Salt River - that Tempe’s Ash Avenue Bridge, finished in 1913, did not meet.

Roughly 8,000 vehicles used the bridge each day when it first opened to traffic, an amount that had overwhelmed the previous bridge over the Salt River. The Old Mill Avenue Bridge formed a section of U.S. 89, for many years the only highway extending all the way across Arizona from north to south.

Those traveling across the state through the Greater Phoenix area in those directions had to use the Mill Avenue Bridge to cross the Salt River.

Aside from Phoenix’s Center Street Bridge, at the time of its construction, the Old Mill Avenue Bridge was the only in-service automobile crossing over the river. Besides U.S. 89, the bridge was the main passage for three other major interstate highways: U.S. 60, U.S. 70, and U.S. 80.

Today, there are two Mill Avenue bridges, a northbound and a southbound bridge, and several other Salt River crossings, including a light rail bridge. About 14,000 cars cross the Mill Avenue bridges each day.

The City of Tempe will honor Hoffman with a plaque to be installed on the Old Mill Avenue Bridge on May 1, the 90th anniversary of the dedication of the bridge. His granddaughters, Sherry Barrett and Cindy Shepardson, will be present for the celebration, as will the current Arizona State Engineer, Greg Byres of ADOT.

“Ralph Hoffman’s designs have stood the test of time,” said Byres. “The aesthetics and function of his bridges have benefitted drivers and the public for a century. We’re proud to join Tempe in honoring his work.”

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