Navajo Bridge

Navajo Bridge crosses the Colorado River's Marble Canyon near Lee's Ferry in the US state of Arizona carrying U.S. Route 89A. Spanning Marble Canyon, the bridge carries northbound travelers to southern Utah and to the Arizona Strip, the otherwise inaccessible portion of Arizona north of the Colorado River, which includes the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park.

Prior to the construction of the first Navajo Bridge, the only river crossing from Arizona to Utah was at nearby Lee's Ferry, where the canyon walls are low and getting vehicles onto the water is relatively convenient. The ferry offered only unreliable service, however, as adverse weather and flooding regularly prevented its operation.

History

Construction of the original Navajo Bridge began in 1927, and the bridge opened to traffic in 1929. It was paid for by the nascent Arizona State Highway Commission (now the Arizona Department of Transportation) in cooperation with the United States Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs, as the eastern landing is on the Navajo Nation. The steel spandrel bridge design was constructed by the Kansas City Structural Steel Company. During construction, worker Lane McDaniel died after falling 470 feet (140 m) to the Colorado River below. Supervisors had rejected the idea of rigging safety netting, believing that it would catch on fire from falling hot rivets.