The reconstruction of the landmark Pony Bridge near Bridgeport, Oklahoma, will be finished by mid-April to early May, a project supervisor recently told an Oklahoma City television station.
A KFOR-TV reporter went to the site, where workers were busy reinstalling the pony truss sections on the bridge on what was anticipated to be a two-year project.
The narrow bridge is being widened to modern standards, but its distinctive trusses were removed, repainted and now are being reinstalled onto the new span.
The supervisor and engineer on the project, Zach Holt, said the trusses no longer will be load-bearing but are being kept on the bridge for aesthetic purposes.
The trusses, approximately 100 feet long, 20 feet tall, and weighing 20,000 pounds each, are all going back exactly where they were originally installed.
Holt explains, “Each truss is just a little different because they were built 90 years ago.” […]
Holt says, “It’s amazing at 90 years old, other than some surface impurities, it’s still in such great shape.”
Construction is ahead of schedule — hence the likely reopening in the spring instead of the fall of 2024.
Jim McCain posted photos from the bridge earlier this month when the trusses were being reinstalled:
The state of Oklahoma received a $22 million federal grant several years ago to reconstruct the bridge and used another $13 million for the project.
The Pony Bridge, aka the William H. Murray Bridge, remains one of Route 66’s most iconic spans. Built in 1934, it stretches more than 3,900 feet over the South Canadian River and consists of 38 yellow “pony” trusses, hence its nickname.
The bridge appears in the 1939 Oscar-winning film “The Grapes of Wrath.” In 2016, the bridge appeared on Preservation Oklahoma’s Most Endangered Historic Places list.
(Screen-capture image from KFOR-TV video of the Pony Bridge reconstruction)