{"nrhp_refnum":"12000398","name":"Durgan Bridge","other_names":["Courthouse Bridge","Nevada Street Bridge","Bridge 13C0006"],"category":"structure","location":{"address":"Nevada St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Downieville","county":"Sierra County","state":"CA","lat":39.55965351300006,"lon":-120.82928759899994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2012-07-10","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Community Planning and Development"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A 140-foot, one-lane steel Pratt through truss bridge carrying Nevada Street over the river in Downieville, Sierra County, California. It was built in 1938 by the Judson Pacific Company of San Francisco to a design by county engineer George Taylor.","why_significant":"The bridge is significant under Criterion A at the local level for its link to Downieville's recovery after the December 1937 flood, which destroyed its wooden predecessor. Its steel truss design reflects the county's decision to rebuild with trusses after a concrete arch highway bridge failed in the flood. It is also a rare surviving one-lane rigid connected Pratt truss still carrying traffic.","narrative":"Spanning the river on Nevada Street in Downieville, this 140-foot steel Pratt through truss bridge was built in 1938 and still carries a single lane of traffic, plus a four-foot pedestrian walkway. Riveted steel I-beams form the trusses, which rest on two concrete piers, and builder's plates identify Judson Pacific Co. of San Francisco. The bridge replaced a wooden span destroyed in the December 1937 flood, when debris collapsed the new concrete arch highway bridge upstream and the surge swept away two downstream bridges. County engineer George Taylor chose steel trusses over concrete for the replacements, and by the end of 1938 Downieville again had four single-lane truss bridges. The site also holds earlier crossings dating to 1851, built by James Durgan, and local historians associate it with the 1851 lynching of Juanita. The bridge is valued for its role in the town's rebuilding and as a rare surviving example of its type.","period_of_significance":"1938","architect_builder":"Judson Pacific Company, contractor; George Taylor, County Engineer, designer","architectural_style":"One lane steel, rigid connected Pratt through truss","criteria":["A"],"status_note":"Still carries automobile and pedestrian traffic on its single lane; the form reports a high degree of integrity.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:29.522008-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/12000398.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/12000398/a28b946638-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/12000398/a28b946638-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Rifflebox","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Durgan_Bridge,_Downieville,_California.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Rifflebox</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Durgan_Bridge,_Downieville,_California.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123857808","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q111843013"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/sierra-county/durgan-bridge-12000398/"}