Endangered Places

Maitland Arroyo Bridge is a 1940 timber stringer bridge carrying SH 69 over Maitland Arroyo in Huerfano County, Colorado. Listed in the National Register of Historic Places, it is one of the preservation-priority bridges featured in Colorado Preservation, Inc.’s Historic Bridges of Colorado listing.

Missouri Creek Bridge is a historic steel stringer bridge with a timber floor in Huerfano County, Colorado. Built in 1940, the bridge carries SH 69 over Missouri Creek and reflects the influence of Works Progress Administration bridge construction in southern Colorado. It has been determined eligible for the National Register of Historic Places and is one of the preservation-priority bridges in the Historic Bridges of Colorado effort.

The bridge was constructed near the end of the Works Progress Administration era. Created during the Great Depression, the WPA provided employment through public works projects across the country, including roads, bridges, public buildings, parks, and other civic infrastructure. In Colorado, WPA bridge projects often combined practical engineering with Rustic-style design elements, especially in rural and scenic settings where stone, timber, and carefully proportioned structures helped bridges relate visually to their surroundings.

Missouri Creek Bridge is significant for its association with WPA-funded and WPA-built transportation infrastructure. By 1940, the WPA program had passed its peak years in Colorado, but projects like Missouri Creek Bridge continued to leave a lasting imprint on the state’s highway system. These bridges provided much-needed transportation improvements while also putting local labor to work during a period of national economic hardship.

The bridge is also significant as a multi-span steel stringer bridge built with Rustic-style design characteristics. Steel stringer bridges use parallel steel beams, or stringers, to support the deck and carry traffic loads to the abutments and piers. This type of bridge was practical, durable, and adaptable to many smaller and medium-sized crossings. At Missouri Creek, the use of steel I-beam stringers, a timber floor, stone masonry elements, and timber railings gives the bridge both structural efficiency and historic visual character.

The bridge’s character-defining features include its steel I-beam stringer superstructure, stone masonry abutments, stone wingwalls, and battered piers. These stone features are especially important to the bridge’s Rustic character. Rather than presenting the bridge as a purely utilitarian highway structure, the masonry gives it a crafted appearance and helps visually anchor the crossing within the landscape.

The original timber beam railings also contribute to the bridge’s historic identity. Railings are often among the most vulnerable features of historic bridges because they may be altered or replaced to meet changing safety standards. At Missouri Creek Bridge, the retention of original timber railings helps communicate the bridge’s period of construction and its WPA-era design approach.

Missouri Creek Bridge has been determined eligible for the National Register of Historic Places for its association with the Works Progress Administration and for its design as a notable example of a Rustic-style highway bridge. Its significance reflects both the social history of federal work-relief programs and the engineering history of bridge construction in Colorado. The bridge demonstrates how even practical rural crossings could carry architectural and historical meaning.

As part of the Historic Bridges of Colorado preservation effort, Missouri Creek Bridge has been identified as a preservation-priority bridge. CDOT selected the bridge for Group B, recommending development of an individual bridge management plan because it represents a significant trend in bridge building and is a notable example of its type. That recommendation recognizes the bridge’s value as both infrastructure and historic resource.

Preserving Missouri Creek Bridge requires attention to its steel, timber, and masonry components. The bridge’s materials each present different preservation needs, including maintenance of the steel stringers, protection of the timber deck and railings, and repair of stone masonry features. Because the bridge remains part of an active roadway, preservation planning must also consider safety, load capacity, and long-term maintenance.

Missouri Creek Bridge helps tell an important Depression-era story within Colorado’s transportation history. Its design reflects the WPA’s ability to combine labor, materials, engineering, and public purpose in a single project. While the bridge is modest compared with large river crossings or monumental arches, it is significant because it represents the everyday infrastructure that connected rural communities and improved state highways.

The continued preservation of Missouri Creek Bridge ensures that Colorado’s WPA bridge legacy remains visible. It stands as a reminder that historic bridges are not only feats of engineering, but also records of public investment, local labor, and the changing relationship between transportation and landscape during the twentieth century.

This bridge is one of the 23 preservation-priority bridges featured in Colorado Preservation, Inc.’s Historic Bridges of Colorado listing. View the full Historic Bridges of Colorado overview to learn more about the statewide preservation effort.