Rio Grande Gorge Bridge

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Rio Grande Gorge Bridge
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Nearest city: Taos, NM
Coordinates: 36°28′34.46″N 105°43′56.14″W / 36.4762389, -105.7322611Coordinates: 36°28′34.46″N 105°43′56.14″W / 36.4762389, -105.7322611
Built/Founded: 1965
Architect: Charles E. Reed, Chief Bridge Engineer; Herman Tachau, Principal Designer
Architectural style(s): Other
Added to NRHP: July 15, 1997
NRHP Reference#: 97000733 [1]
MPS: Historic Highway Bridges of New Mexico MPS
Governing body: State

The Rio Grande Gorge Bridge is a cantilever truss bridge, the second highest in the United States[citation needed], with a span of 1280 feet (two 300 foot-long approach spans with a 600 foot-long main center span) across the Rio Grande Gorge which runs 650 feet below. It was dedicated on September 10, 1965 and is a part of U.S. Route 64, a major east-west road. In 1966 the American Institute of Steel Construction awarded the bridge "Most Beautiful Steel Bridge" in the "Long Span" category.

Today, it is a tourist attraction ten miles northwest of Taos, New Mexico and has been featured in several films, including Natural Born Killers, Twins, She's Having a Baby and Wild Hogs.

[edit] Trivia

The sight of this bridge in the movie Twins is out of sequence. The Benedict brothers were traveling from Los Angeles to Santa Fe, where the scientific lab was, and would have reached Santa Fe about an hour before reaching the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge.[citation needed]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ National Register Information System. National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service (2007-01-23).

[edit] External links

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