Spokane River Bridge at Fort Spokane, Spanning Spokane River at State Route 25, Miles, Lincoln County, WA

Significance: This bridge was one of two steel cantilever spans that the Washington Department of Highways constructed to replace structures flooded by the waters rising behind Grand Coulee Dam. / The Spokane River Bridge at Fort Spokane is the largest bridge constructed in Washington in the 1940s before American involvement in World War II precluded bridge building. Financed by the United States Bureau of Reclamation, along with one other highway structure, the Columbia River Bridge at Kettle Falls (HAER No. WA-91) was part of a highway relocation program in conjunction with the Grand Coulee Dam Columbia Basin Reclamation Project. The dam raised the Columbia River and tributaries including the Spokane River, creating the 151-mile-long Franklin D. Roosevelt Lake. The reservoir's formation necessitated replacing the two highway bridges and one railroad structure. The cantilever design used for the Spokane River Bridge at Fort Spokane was the most economical type of bridge for the location because the river's depth even prior to the dam's construction precluded using any design that required mid-channel falsework.
Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: N159
Survey number: HAER WA-113
Building/structure dates: 1941 Initial Construction