The McMillin Bridge (also known as the Puyallup River Bridge) is a concrete

half-through A plate girder bridge is a bridge supported by two or more plate girders. Overview In a plate girder bridge, the plate girders are typically I-beams made up from separate structural steel plates (rather than rolled as a single cross-section), w ...

truss A truss is an assembly of ''members'' such as Beam (structure), beams, connected by ''nodes'', that creates a rigid structure. In engineering, a truss is a structure that "consists of two-force members only, where the members are organized so ...

bridge crossing the

Puyallup River The Puyallup River ( ) is a river in the U.S. state of Washington. About long, it is formed by glaciers on the west side of Mount Rainier. It flows generally northwest, emptying into Commencement Bay, part of Puget Sound. The river and its t ...

, in

Pierce County, Washington Pierce County is a County (United States), county in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 921,130, up from 795,225 in 2010, making it the second-most populous ...

, built in 1934. The main span of the bridge is long, which was the longest beam span or concrete truss in the US when it was built. It was part of State Route 162 until it was replaced by a new span in 2015.

Design

The bridge design uses a hollow-box system, which was suggested to the design company of W. H. Witt Company by Homer M. Hadley. The bridge was then built by Dolph Jones. The bridge was built to replace a steel span that had been washed out by the flooding river in 1933. Because of economic conditions, the concrete design was chosen over a steel design, with a savings of $826, in addition to lower maintenance costs. The bridge is unusual in that it combines concrete with the half-through truss design, which was usually built with steel.

Construction

The previous bridge was damaged in 1933, but the replacement bridge was ready to open in 1934, despite the Great Depression.

Historic preservation

The bridge was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1982. It was saved from demolition after its replacement by a new bridge carrying State Route 162, which opened in 2015.

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