The Pine Valley Creek Bridge, also known as Nello Irwin Greer Memorial Bridge, is a reinforced concrete box girder bridge in San Diego County, California, built in 1974 as part of the Interstate 8 freeway system. At the time of its construction, it was the first bridge constructed in the United States using the segmental balanced cantilever method. The bridge rises 450 feet (140 m) above the valley floor, and is over 1,700 feet (520 m) long.
Originally known unofficially as the Pine Valley Creek Bridge, a California State Senate concurrent resolution (SCR-33) officially named the bridge in honor of the project engineer, Nello Irwin Greer, responsible for designing the section of Interstate 8 known as the "Pine Valley Project".
In the original design, the freeway's routing followed the old US Highway 80 path through the center of the town of Pine Valley. This would have destroyed much of the town and many of the native pines found there. Greer's design re-routed the freeway to the south, bypassing and preserving the quaint beauty of this eastern San Diego County mountain community. This new design also saved two miles (3 km) of freeway construction, saving millions of dollars in costs. However this re-routing of the freeway mandated the crossing of the Pine Valley Creek Canyon. The bridge that now bears Greer's name was the design answer to that engineering hurdle.
Famous quotes containing the words pine, valley, creek and/or bridge:
“Strange that so few ever come to the woods to see how the pine lives and grows and spires, lifting its evergreen arms to the light,—to see its perfect success; but most are content to behold it in the shape of many broad boards brought to market, and deem that its true success! But the pine is no more lumber than man is, and to be made into boards and houses is no more its true and highest use than the truest use of a man is to be cut down and made into manure.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
““Over the mountains
Of the moon,
Down the valley of the shadow,
Ride, boldly ride,”
The shade replied,—
“If you seek for Eldorado!””
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)
“The only law was that enforced by the Creek Lighthorsemen and the U.S. deputy marshals who paid rare and brief visits; or the “two volumes of common law” that every man carried strapped to his thighs.”
—State of Oklahoma, U.S. relief program (1935-1943)
“London Bridge is broken down,
Dance o’er my lady lee,
London Bridge is broken down,
With a gay lady.
How shall we build it up again?
Dance o’er my lady lee,”
—Unknown. London Bridge (l. 1–6)