The weirdly wonderful American River bridge that never was

It was a captivating and perhaps head-scratching presentation by a world-renowned engineering visionary touting a unique bridge over the middle fork American River 10 miles upstream from what was to have been an Auburn Dam. For an hour, Placer County leaders were enthralled — if not puzzled — as T.Y. Lin of San Francisco outlined his proposal for a web of cables supporting a curved "horizontal" arc span suspended 35 feet over the future dam's reservoir. It had never been done before. And as it turned out, it never was to be. Lin was chosen by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to design the bridge to connect two roads — Spring Garden in Placer County and Spanish Dry Diggins in El Dorado County. A bridge that had linked the two was washed away in the early 1960s after the Hell Hole Dam broke. The breach resulted in the Highway 49 bridge at the American River confluence also being swept away. But that bridge was quickly replaced. Not so with the Ruck-A-Chucky crossing. Concrete vision Lin by 1976 was considered an influential pioneer in the use of pre-stressed concrete in structural design. Today, his work can be seen worldwide, with landmarks like San Francisco's Moscone Convention Center, Kuan Du Bridge in Taiwan and the roof of the National Racetrack in Caracas, Venezuela part of his legacy. The Ruck-A-Chucky bridge could have added to that legacy, if it had been built along with an Auburn dam. Lin's plan was to drill rock anchors into the ground to string a web of cables to hold up a bridge that would be 500 feet above the riverbed of the middle fork — and 35 feet above the high-water line of an Auburn dam reservoir. The cables would be attached to cement blocks anchored — in some cases 50 feet deep — along the steep sides of the canyon, Lin told the assemblage. At an estimated cost of $13 million, Lin envisioned work starting in 1978 and being completed two years later. The illustration — found in the Journal archives in a handout given to local leaders and the media at the November 1976 presentation — shows a graceful curve hovering over the reservoir, casting scenic reflections into the water. Horse lane Lin built fireproofing of the cable system into the plan, as well as adding an equestrian lane for the bridge. More than 44 years later, the dream of a bridge that never was is still there — on paper. Lin died in 2003 at 91. By then, he had been presented with the National Medal of Science by President Ronald Reagan. Famously, at the White House ceremony, Lin slipped the president a 16-page booklet outlining another one of his plans — for a 50-mile bridge connecting Alaska to Siberia, an Intercontinental Peace Bridge across the Bering Strait. That too is still waiting on the drawing board for the dollars and the political will. "Remember This?" and Gus Thomson can be reached at gust@goldcountrymedia.com or 530-852-0232. Thomson is a state and national award-winning reporter who writes for the Auburn Journal.