SACRAMENTO TOWER BRIDGE
SACRAMENTO TOWER BRIDGE
The Tower Bridge is a vertical lift bridge crossing the Sacramento River, linking West Sacramento in Yolo County to the west, with the capital of California, Sacramento, in Sacramento County to the east. It was previously a part of U.S. Route 40 until that highway was truncated to east of Salt Lake City. The bridge is still maintained by the California Department of Transportation as part of State Route 275. It connects West Capitol Avenue and Tower Bridge Gateway in West Sacramento with the Capitol Mall in Sacramento.
In March 1926, construction was completed on the M Street Bridge in Sacramento. Seven years later, in 1933, the city realized that it needed a better crossing over the Sacramento River in case of war, and that the existing bridge was highly inadequate to handle heavy traffic. On December 22, 1933, the State of California, Sacramento County, and the Sacramento Northern Electric Railroad (later the Sacramento Northern Railway) held a conference to plan the new bridge. It was to be 52 feet (16 m) wide, with four lanes for cars, and one large center lane for trains. On December 15, 1935, then-governor Frank Merriam dedicated the bridge.
Currently, the bridge is used for pedestrian and vehicle traffic only. In 2007, regional transportation agencies were considering the possibility of adding trolley traffic across the bridge
The Tower Bridge was the first vertical lift bridge in the California Highway System.
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