The Spring Creek Bridge is a historic concrete slab bridge in Kit Carson County that carries US 24 over Spring Creek. Built in 1928, the bridge represents an early period of Colorado Highway Department bridge construction and has been identified as one of the preservation-priority bridges in the Historic Bridges of Colorado effort.
Spring Creek Bridge was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2002 as part of the Highway Bridges in Colorado Multiple Property Submission. The bridge is significant under Criterion A in the area of Transportation for its association with an early transportation route, and under Criterion C in the area of Engineering as a rare surviving example of a concrete slab bridge type that was once commonly used in Colorado. Built in 1928, the bridge includes seven concrete slab spans and retains important character-defining features, including its cast-in-place concrete slab structure and original doghouse-style concrete railing.
Concrete slab bridges were among the practical bridge types used by highway departments for smaller and moderate crossings during the early twentieth century. Their basic form relied on reinforced concrete slabs that acted as both the roadway deck and the structural span. Although the type was straightforward and widely useful, intact early examples have become less common as highways have been widened, reconstructed, or realigned.
The Spring Creek Bridge is significant because it represents a once-common bridge type that is now increasingly rare in an intact historic form. Built in the late 1920s, it reflects the period when Colorado’s state highway system was still maturing and the Colorado Highway Department was using standardized designs to improve road reliability across the state. Bridges like Spring Creek helped replace less permanent crossings and supported the growth of automobile and truck travel through rural Colorado.
The bridge is also important within the transportation history of eastern Colorado. US 24 served as an east-west route across the plains, connecting communities, agricultural areas, and regional travel corridors. Small bridges along this route were essential pieces of the transportation network, even when they lacked the dramatic visual qualities of large trusses or arches. Without dependable creek and drainage crossings, long-distance highway travel remained vulnerable to weather and road conditions.
The character-defining features of the Spring Creek Bridge include its reinforced concrete slab superstructure, concrete substructure, multi-span form, and original concrete railing elements. These features convey the bridge’s early highway engineering character and help identify it as a representative example of Colorado Highway Department bridge design from the 1920s.
Because concrete slab bridges were functional, relatively economical, and adaptable, many were built across Colorado. However, that very commonness has sometimes made them easy to overlook as historic resources. The Spring Creek Bridge demonstrates why preservation priorities must include representative examples of ordinary infrastructure, not only the rarest or most visually dramatic bridge types. Everyday bridges can tell important stories about public investment, road standardization, and the modernization of rural transportation.
As part of the Historic Bridges of Colorado preservation effort, the Spring Creek Bridge has been identified by the Colorado Department of Transportation as a preservation-priority bridge. Its preservation helps ensure that early concrete slab bridge construction remains represented within Colorado’s historic bridge inventory.
The Spring Creek Bridge contributes to a broader understanding of how Colorado’s highway system developed across different regions and landscapes. Its continued presence on US 24 connects modern travelers with the early twentieth-century infrastructure that helped make rural automobile travel more dependable and efficient. Preserving the bridge helps retain a tangible example of the state’s early highway engineering and eastern plains transportation history.
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.