Celebration set for Historic Green Bridge

After years of planning, researching and seeking funding, the Historic Green Bridge has been moved and is settled in at its new home.

The New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum is planning a large celebration on Oct. 20 to welcome the facility's newest structure. A ceremony and ribbon-cutting at 1 p.m. will kick off an afternoon-long schedule of activities that includes a vintage cars and trucks on display, refreshments and music by the Deming Fusiliers.

Also planned is a panel discussion of historic roads and bridges, scheduled for 3 p.m. in the museum's theater.

"This exciting preservation project is an important step in the development of our exterior exhibits," Museum Director Mark Santiago said of the arrival of the bridge. "Physically, as well as metaphorically, the bridge has brought people from the past to the future."

Listed on the New Mexico Register of Cultural Properties in 1997, the bridge was identified in a 1987 bridge survey as the oldest and longest Pratt through-truss bridge with pinned connections in New Mexico, the second-oldest surviving highway bridge in the state, and the state's oldest steel highway bridge. The structure is 133 feet long and 16 feet wide.

The bridge is a dramatic addition to the Museum and will provide pedestrian access across the Tortugas Arroyo and will be a centerpiece in our effort to showcase the history and importance of rural transportation in New Mexico.

The history of the bridge is long and colorful. From 1902 to 1944, the structure was one span of a three-span bridge that reached across the Pecos River east of Roswell. After a series of floods threatened the structure in the late 1930s and early 1940s, the bridge was moved 47 miles west near Picacho, N.M. in Lincoln County in 1944 where it delivered people across the Rio Hondo.

The new Rio Hondo Bridge at Picacho was cleaned, re-decked with wood and asphalt, and painted graphite green, leading local residents to refer to it simply as the "Green Bridge." It remained in use until 1989 when it was fenced off and declared a historic structure. The rusted bridge had fallen into disrepair in recent years.

Ralph Dunlap, a member of the Lincoln County Commission at the time, and an early board member of the Museum, was influential in beginning the process of the bridge's move to a place where it could be preserved. Lincoln County agreed to release the bridge to the Museum several years ago, but the historic structure wasn't moved until this past summer.

ESA Construction of Albuquerque and El Paso dismantled the bridge, moved it, removed the old paint, repainted it and reassembled it across the Tortugas Arroyo.

"The bridge served a large area and it served the people well," said Dunlap. "I'm really happy that it's going to be preserved and used again. I had almost given up, but Cameron (Saffell, the Museum's Curator of History) did a good job and didn't give up. He and a lot of other people worked hard to make this happen."

The panel discussion on historic roads and bridges will feature the following speakers:

Dr. Eric DeLony is the retired chief and principal architect for the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) of the National Park Service in Washington, D.C. Now living in Santa Fe, today he serves as a consultant on engineering and industrial heritage. He is the author of Landmark American Bridges and is one of the nation's leading authorities on historic steel and covered bridges. During the bridge opening activities he will speak to the condition of historic bridges nationwide and in New Mexico.

Dr. David Kammer is a contract historian who specializes in architectural and cultural history. Noted for his research on Route 66, Kammer wrote the 1997 Historic Bridges of New Mexico nomination to the National Register of Historic Places. At the presentation he will address the expansion of New Mexico's road and highway network.

John Murphey is the architectural historian for the New Mexico Historic Preservation Division. His duties include overseeing the nomination and listing of properties to the State Register of Cultural Properties and the National Register of Historic Places. He has been involved with several historic trail and highway surveys in Virginia, Pennsylvania, Texas, New Mexico, and the Southwest, including Route 66 and the Old Spanish Trail. For the panel he will be speaking about New Mexico's historic bridges.

Cameron L. Saffell has been curator of history at the Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum since 1999. There, he develops the research behind all the museum's exhibits, talks, and public programs. He has thoroughly researched the background of the Historic Green Bridge in preparation for its relocation from Lincoln County to the museum campus and served as the project manager for the disassembly and restoration work. Saffell will lead the roundtable discussion during the opening activities and will briefly review the history of the Green Bridge.

Following the brief individual presentations, the panelists will have an open discussion with each other and the audience about the history and heritage of roads and bridges in New Mexico and the U.S.

Admission to the afternoon events on Oct. 20 is free. For more information, please call (575) 522-4100.