Historic Sites, Cameron, Arizona

Tanner's Crossing Bridge
This suspension bridge was built in 1911 by the Midland Bridge Co. for the Office of Indian Affairs. It is also a Natl Historic Place.

History:
In 1911, a sway-back, one-track suspension bridge was erected over a gorge of the Little Colorado on the edge of Navajo and Hopi country. Hubert and C.D. Richardson built a small trading post there in 1916. The Mormon Trail originally crossed the Little Colorado River at a rocky ford six miles upstream. That became known as Tanner's Crossing, in honor of Seth Tanner, a Mormon prospector from Tuba City who built a house nearby in the 1870's. He later expanded his operations into the Grand Canyon area, where he also gave his name to the Tanner Trail.

After the danger from quicksand and flooding at Tanner's Crossing led to the construction of the first suspension bridge across the gorge in 1911, Cameron – named for another legendary canyon prospector, Ralph Cameron - sprang into being on the south side of the span. That one-lane bridge is still there, but now it only carries an oil pipeline, having been superseded by a broader modern highway bridge.

Date: 12.13.2012
Temp: 26°
Elevation: 4441 ft