History

The 11th Street Bridge was completed in December 1915 to carry vehicles across the Arkansas River at Tulsa, Oklahoma. Used from 1916 to 1972, It is on the National Register of Historic Places. It was also a part of U.S. Route 66

U.S. Route 66

U.S. Route 66 was a highway within the U.S. Highway System. One of the original U.S. highways, Route 66 was established on November 11, 1926 -- with road signs erected the following year...

. Functionally, it has been replaced by the I-244

Interstate 244

Interstate 244 , also known as the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Expressway , the Crosstown Expressway, and the Red Fork Expressway, is a 15.8-mile-long east–west Interstate Highway bypass route of Interstate 44 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA.At both I-244's western and eastern terminus, the...

 bridges across the Arkansas. At present, the bridge is in poor structural condition and unsafe even for pedestrians. In 2008, the gates were locked to exclude all visitors.

This bridge was added on December 13, 1996 to the National Register under Criteria A and C. Its NRIS number is 96001488.

Construction

Engineered by Harrington, Howard and Ash of Kansas City, this bridge replaced an earlier wooden structure. It was built by the Missouri Valley Bridge and Iron Company for $180,000. A multi-span concrete arch bridge, with 18 spans, it was 1470 feet long and 34 feet wide. It had a railroad track in the center and one vehicular lane on each side of the track. At the time, it was one of the longest concrete structures in the midwestern United States.

In 1929, the original balustrades and Victorian-style lights were replaced with Art Deco guardrails and lights. A 1934 project constructed a second arched bridge immediately downstream and connected both bridges with a single deck. This brought the deck width to 52 feet 8 inches, and accommodated four lanes of traffic.

Obsolescence

Completion of the I-244 bridges in 1967 removed most vehicular traffic from the 11th street bridge. In 1980, it was closed to traffic, although it remained open to pedestrians. In 1996, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places. In 2004, the City of Tulsa, Oklahoma

Tulsa, Oklahoma

Tulsa is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 46th-largest city in the United States. With a population of 391,906 as of the 2010 census, it is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with 937,478 residents in the MSA and 988,454 in the CSA. Tulsa's...

 formally renamed the Eleventh Street Bridge| (which carried US 66 over the Arkansas River

Arkansas River

The Arkansas River is a major tributary of the Mississippi River. The Arkansas generally flows to the east and southeast as it traverses the U.S. states of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. The river's initial basin starts in the Western United States in Colorado, specifically the Arkansas...

), the Cyrus Avery

Cyrus Avery

Cyrus Stevens Avery was known as the "Father of Route 66". He created the route while a member of the federal board appointed to create the Federal Highway System, then pushed for the establishment of the U.S. Highway 66 Association to pave and promote the highway.-Early life and move to...

Route 66 Memorial Bridge in honor of the man who vigorously promoted the creation of Route 66.

Present condition

Time has not been good to the old bridge, and it has been rated as "quite dangerous" and unsafe for pedestrians by the City of Tulsa. There are holes in the deck, the pavement has buckled in many places, and weeds grow in the cracks. The gates were locked in 2008. Although it was considered as the centerpiece of a Route 66 exhibit, engineers estimated that it would cost $15 million just to be made safe for pedestrians. The conclusion was that the historic structure is "...too expensive to repair, too historic to demolish, and too valuable to ignore."

Ironically, the I-244 bridges have already reached the end of their service lives. The westbound bridge was closed and demolition begun in May 2011. Demolition was 85 percent complete as of August 1, 2011. The demolished structure will be replaced by a double-deck, multimodal span. The top deck will carry vehicles and the lower deck will have a pedestrian way and two railroad tracks (to be added in the future). Completion is scheduled for 2013. Extreme care has been used during the demolition to avoid vibrations that might further damage the old 11th Street Bridge.