Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming.

In Yellowstone Park, there’s a different Golden Gate Bridge from that famous bridge in San Francisco. This bridge spans Golden Gate Canyon along Highway 89 actually began as a wooden plank viaduct, which was truly an engineering marvel when it was originally constructed by the U.S. Corps of Engineers in 1885, The bridge was reconstructed four times, the last build completed in 1977.

The bridges were designed to span the canyon as the highway traversed the park. After earthquake damage, the third iteration of the bridge was replaced by a concrete deck on girders supported by concrete piers.

A great blog post featuring the history of the viaduct can be found here. Probably the most interesting note in this story is the construction and premature demise of a tunnel that never got to see public use.

A placard near the pull-off where the opening photo was taken features a short history of the bridge and its predecessors. Click on either of the images above to view them close-up in a gallery on my Flickr site.

John Steiner