The Foresthill Bridge, also called the Auburn-Foresthill Bridge or the Auburn Bridge, is a road bridge crossing over the

North Fork American River The North Fork American River is the longest branch of the American River in Northern California. It is long from its source at the crest of the Sierra Nevada (U.S.), Sierra Nevada, near Lake Tahoe, to its mouth at Folsom Lake northeast of Sacr ...

Placer County Placer County ( ; ''Placer'', Spanish language, Spanish for "sand deposit"), officially the County of Placer, is a County (United States), county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was ...

and the

Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada ( ) is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primari ...

foothills, in eastern California. It is the highest bridge by deck height in

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, the fourth highest in the United States, and among the seventy highest in the world at 730 feet (220 m) above the river. Foresthill Bridge 5-31-19

History

Originally constructed to replace a river-level crossing of the American River that would have been flooded by the reservoir that would have been created by the unbuilt Auburn Dam, the deck of the steel

cantilever bridge A cantilever bridge is a bridge built using structures that project horizontally into space, supported on only one end (called cantilevers). For small footbridges, the cantilevers may be simple beam (structure), beams; however, large cantilever ...

stands above the river. It was fabricated in 1971 by

Kawasaki Heavy Industries is a Japanese Public company, public multinational corporation manufacturer of motorcycles, engines, Heavy equipment (construction), heavy equipment, aerospace and Military, defense equipment, rolling stock and ships, headquartered in Minato, To ...

in Japan, built by Willamette Western Contractors, and opened in 1973. The four-lane bridge spans the North Fork of the American River in Placer County between the city of Auburn and the town of Foresthill in the Sierra Nevada foothills. Pedestrians can walk the length of the bridge in both directions. There was anti-Auburn Dam graffiti, showing protest of the planned dam, on the bridge's underside. A

seismic retrofit Seismology (; from Ancient Greek σεισμός (''seismós'') meaning "earthquake" and -λογία (''-logía'') meaning "study of") is the scientific study of earthquakes (or generally, quakes) and the generation and propagation of elastic ...

project began in January 2011 and was completed in 2015, with an estimated cost of $74.4 million. The original bridge cost less than $13 million.

In media

The bridge can be seen in the beginning of the 2002 film '' XXX'' in which

Vin Diesel Mark Sinclair (born July 18, 1967), known professionally as Vin Diesel, is an American actor and film producer. One of the world's highest-grossing actors, he is best known for portraying Dominic "Dom" Toretto in the '' Fast & Furious'' fra ...

's character Xander Cage is seen driving a stolen red

Chevrolet Corvette The Chevrolet Corvette is a line of American two-door, two-seater sports cars manufactured and marketed by General Motors under the Chevrolet marque since 1953. Throughout eight generations, indicated sequentially as C1 to C8, the Corvette is not ...

off it, then jumping from the car mid-flight and

parachuting Parachuting and skydiving are methods of descending from a high point in an atmosphere to the ground or ocean surface with the aid of gravity, involving the control of speed during the descent using a parachute or multiple parachutes. For hu ...

to his accomplices at the bottom of the American River Canyon. It also appears in a montage sequence toward the end of the

romantic comedy Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a sub-genre of comedy and Romance novel, romance fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount all obstacles. Ro ...

The Ugly Truth ''The Ugly Truth'' is a 2009 American romantic comedy film directed by Robert Luketic, written by Nicole Eastman, Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith, and starring Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler. The film was released in North America on ...

'', and has been utilized in multiple exercise equipment advertisements.

Suicides

Due to its height, the bridge is a noteworthy

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Risk factors for suicide include mental disorders, physical disorders, and substance abuse. Some suicides are impulsive acts driven by stress (such as from financial or ac ...

site. , there have been 102 suicides since the bridge's construction. As part of the bridge's 2011–2015 renovations, a pedestrian barrier was installed to prevent further attempts.

Bridge Fire (2021)

The Bridge Fire, which burned under the Foresthill Bridge, started on September 5 and burned for a total of 9 days. were burned, with CAL-FIRE reporting one injury.

References

External links