page_title: Salt River (California)
section_title: Salt River bridge
hierarchical_section_title: Salt River (California) / History / Recorded history / Salt River bridge
caption_attribution_description: English: The Dillon Road / Valley Flower Creamery bridge over the Salt River in Humboldt County, California was built in 1994. At present the Salt River is dry in the photo and vegetation has been removed to permit excavation of a new channel.
context_page_description: The Salt River is a formerly navigable hanging channel of the Eel River which flowed about 9 miles from near Fortuna and Waddington, California, to the estuary at the Pacific Ocean, until siltation from logging and agricultural practices essentially closed the channel. It was historically an important navigation route until the early 20th century. It presently intercepts and drains tributaries from the Wildcat Hills along the south side of the Eel River floodplain. Efforts to restore the river began in 1987, permits and construction began in 2012, and water first flowed in the restored channel in October 2013.
context_section_description: During the 1880s, people and materials crossed the Salt River on a log pontoon bridge located at the site of the current Dillon Road bridge.40°35′42.02″N 124°16′29.09″W  During floods, one end would be let loose while one end remained tethered.  The bridge would be tied back up when the flood was over.  Even so, the bridge needed constant rebuilding.  In 1886, the first bridge intended to be permanent was built by the American Bridge Company, but it was destroyed in 1890, and replaced in 1893.  That second "permanent" bridge was destroyed in the flood of 1894.  The third bridge was built in 1894 with extra clearance, and was of a style called Howe pony truss timber bridge.  It survived both a flood and the 1906 San Francisco earthquake when Port Kenyon subsided several feet.
  The Valley Flower Creamery was built in 1914 north of the Salt River on Dillon Road, expanded operations over the next several years, and continued in business for 45 years. In its earliest days, the creamery was producing about 75,000 pounds (34,000 kg) pounds of butter and 37,000 pounds (17,000 kg) pounds of casein every month, and during World War I they had a contract with the U.S. Navy for 150,000 pounds (68,000 kg) of butter.  
  Because all their produce had to cross Salt River on the aging timber bridge, the county replaced it in 1919 with a 142 feet (43 m) reinforced concrete girder bridge, which when built was the world's longest bridge of that type, with spans nearly double the length of the prior record holder. The bridge became eligible for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987, but was torn down and replaced by a concrete beam bridge in 1994.
caption: The 1994 Dillon Road bridge
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