Historic US 85-87 bridge in Colorado Springs

5/5/2019

The original bridge over Cottonwood Creek in this area was the 1887 stone arch bridge for the ATSF railroad. A parallel auto road was also built right along the west side of the RR. This became one of the most important early auto routes in Colorado, running north-south along the Front Range (in other words, a precursor to today's I-25). In fact it was designated "State Highway #1" in the 1920s. A new bridge for this road was built in 1923-24, just downstream (west) of the RR bridge. This is the same bridge that still stands today. It has long since been surrounded by the urban expanse of Colorado Springs, but back in 1924 this area was still quite rural. It was not yet a part of the Springs and the road was probably not yet referred to as Vincent Drive. This photo was taken from a vantage point on the stone arch bridge (now "New" Vincent Drive), looking west down Cottonwood Creek towards Pikes Peak. The 1924 bridge which carried "Old" Vincent Drive is visible just beyond the rec trail bridge in the foreground:

In 1926-27, when the US route system was first implemented, SH 1 (including this bridge) became part of US highway 85. In 1936 the US 87 designation was extended southward from Wyoming; it was twinned with US 85 between Denver and Raton NM, including through the Springs.

By the time of the 1949 topo, a new road had been built that crossed the creek just a little farther downstream (right where I-25 crosses today, just above the confluence where Cottonwood Creek flows into Monument Creek). This road ran in a straight line (rather than following the curve of the RR), but the original road and bridge were still in use as well. On all maps on this page, the location of the 1924 bridge is marked with a red crosshair:

USGS, c. 1949

The 1961 topo shows that I-25 had recently been built, and it used the newer (straighter) alignment. The 1924 Vincent Dr bridge was still in use, but the road dead-ended just to the south, where its alignment was subsumed by I-25's right-of-way. So altogether this bridge carried US 85-87 traffic for about 33 years:

USGS, c. 1961

The 1975 topo shows the same thing, with the addition of encroaching development, and the subtraction of the RR line, which had been abandoned:

USGS, c. 1975

The 1986 topo still shows Vincent dead-ending south of the bridge, but it also shows that the City had begun to build roads along the former RR alignment:

USGS, c. 1986

The animated image below shows a comparison of all maps:

In 2001 the bridge was added to the National Register of Historic Places. In 2012 the old 1887 RR bridge was repurposed to carry auto traffic along a slightly-realigned Vincent Drive. At that time the 1924 bridge was closed to all users, including pedestrians. In both of these next photos, the I-25 bridges are visible just to the west: