Invitation To Our Next Meeting
The next meeting of the New Mexico Route 66 Association will be held
Wednesday, November 13, at 1 PM. We will meet in the 66 Diner, located at
1405 Central Avenue NE. Come early and enjoy lunch with other friends of
the Mother Road. Bring your memorabilia to be entered in our giant scrapbook.
Submit your suggestions for making our association more dynamic and get
a firsthand report from the "Run to the Heartland" event.
A lot has happened since we met last May. At last count, 18 new members
have joined our association and 18 members have renewed. Our 36 memberships
include four business renewals and four new business memberships. Remember,
a business membership includes a complimentary ad in the newsletter. Where
are the rest of the faithful? We want to hear from you and will answer any
questions you may have. The mail is being picked up and answered and we
have the finances to produce another newsletter. We had 2000 copies of the
Summer issue printed and nearly all have been distributed. To encourage
renewals, new businesses and personal memberships, we will publish a double-page
map insert, designed by Jan Underwood with input from David Kammer, in the
next newsletter. This map will show places of interest and exits of where
to get on and off of Interstate 40 to travel the colorful 398 New Mexico
miles of the historic route. If you have not renewed your membership
by January 1997, we will assume that you do not wish to renew and will update
our mailing list accordingly. The next newsletter with the map insert will
be mailed shortly afterwards. |
Historic Bridge at the Rio Puerco
by David Kammer
The recent interest in Route 66 and early auto travel in New Mexico
has resulted in several listings in the National Register of Historic Places.
Several sections of Route 66 have already been listed in the register and
several historic highway bridges throughout the state will soon be nominated
for register listing. The Rio Puerco Bridge, approximately nine miles west
of Albuquerque at I-40 exit 140, is a key structure along Route 66 and will
be included in these nominations. Built in 1933, the bridge is the longest
single span Parker truss bridge in the state. Its span is 250 feet long,
consisting of ten 25-foot long panels. Each panel's top chord is angled
differently, making the polygonal top chord characteristic of Parker truss
design bridges. The deck is constructed of concrete with an asphalt surface,
resting on steel stringers. In 1957 the truss was remodeled by removing
the lowest portal struts and installing lighter struts for higher clearance.
When federal highways first received systematic numbering in 1926, many
of the roads in western states were local roads spliced together to create
a makeshift highway. In the late '20s and '30s, engineers were able to plan
and construct more efficient, safer alignments. In New Mexico, original
Route 66 used local roads, taking the route north from Santa Rosa to near
Las Vegas, west to Santa Fe, south through Albuquerque to Los Lunas and
then west, following the Santa Fe railroad. A campaign began in the
'20s to straighten the highway to an east-west path through Albuquerque.
This became reality in 1937. Preparing the way for this realignment was
the spanning of the Rio Puerco in 1933. Although waterflow in the river
is minimal, the river is capable of torrential flooding. This is evident
by its severely eroded floodplain and riverbanks. Early in the century,
the river posed a challenge to highway engineers. It earned the reputation
of being an "outlaw" river,
(continued on page 2) |
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Autum 1996
