The Central Avenue Bridge that carries Route 66 over the Rio Grande in Albuquerque soon will be considered a city landmark by the city’s Landmarks Commission.
According to KRQE-TV in Albuquerque, a historic preservation planner explained during a meeting that the bridge remains one of Albuquerque’s most historically significant structures.
The planner, Silvia Bolivar, says, “the landmark designation of this important site will give the Landmarks Commission the future responsibility and opportunity to honor this critical site because the bridge crossing serves as a physical record of events that helped shape the City of Albuquerque.”
In 1926 Route 66 was 507 miles long through New Mexico, but as engineers realigned highways to make them safer and more efficient, it was reduced to 399 miles. The Central bridge created the Santa Rosa-Laguna shortcut.
The bridge has been rebuilt and replaced over the years. The current bridge was built in 1983. The Landmarks Commission is awaiting input from the state, which maintains the bridge, before they make an official decision on the landmark.
The Santa Rosa-Laguna shortcut refers to the fact Route 66 finally took a basic straight line westward from Santa Rosa.
U.S. 66 until the late 1930s once looped up to Santa Fe before heading back south to Albuquerque. U.S. 66 also drifted south of Albuquerque to Las Lunas before heading west again. Albuquerque’s Central Avenue Bridge was a critical link to bypassing both of those circuitous alignments.
(Excerpted Google Street View image of Central Avenue Bridge in Albuquerque)