Gorgeous coastal bridge on California's Highway 1 gets a death sentence

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NEWS | NORTH COAST
Gorgeous coastal bridge on California's Highway 1 gets a death sentence

Mendocino Coast residents are fighting to save the Albion River Bridge, the last wooden bridge on Highway 1


A view of the Albion River Bridge in Little River, Calif.
Larry Myhre via Flickr CC 2.0

By Matt LaFever,
North Coast Contributing Editor
Sep 15, 2025

California’s Mendocino Coast is a precipitous reminder that there’s no farther west to go. Here, the land plunges into the Pacific, met by dramatic bluffs as Highway 1 clings to the edge. Albion — 17 miles south of Fort Bragg, the county’s coastal hub — is easy to miss: a headland jutting west into the sea, an inland road leading to a town center of just over 150 residents.

The clearest marker for the community is the Albion River Bridge. One hundred fifty feet above the water, it carries Highway 1 across the river mouth, with Albion’s homes visible on the bluffs to the east, campgrounds tucked below, and the river itself stretching west to the sea.

This bridge is no ordinary crossing. Built in 1944, it is the last timber truss superstructure owned by the state of California still carrying highway traffic — a historic landmark that locals consider part of their identity. Picture a bridge high above the Albion River that looks like something out of a black-and-white Western: less like modern highway infrastructure, more like the skeletal framework of an old railroad trestle. Weathered wooden beams crisscross in triangles, forming a lattice that holds the roadway high above the water. That’s what the Albion River Bridge looks like.

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The Albion River Bridge’s unusual form reflects its wartime origins. Built while the United States was still embroiled in World War II, the bridge was designed with timber because concrete and steel were needed for the war effort. As Caltrans documentation explains: “In an effort to conserve concrete and steel materials for the war effort, the original proposed concrete arch structure design was abandoned, and the bridge was redesigned to predominantly use timber.” The single-span riveted steel deck truss at its core was recycled from an old bridge on the South Fork of the Feather River, about 200 miles east. Heid told SFGATE that one of the engineers who worked on the Albion River Bridge had also assisted in the construction of the original Bay Bridge.


Workers in 1944 construct the Albion River Bridge’s unusual timber-and-steel framework directly over the river mouth, a wartime design shaped by material shortages.
Courtesy of the Albion Bridge Stewards


Built in 1944 during World War II, the Albion River Bridge spans the river between green coastal bluffs. It remains California’s last timber truss highway bridge.
Emanuel Fritz/Berkeley Library Digital Collections

Today, it remains the only wooden trestle bridge left on Highway 1, and its significance has grown beyond its basic function. “The Albion River Bridge appears on the side of our fire trucks,” Heid said. “... The timber bridge alongside the little cluster of houses that make up Albion Village are just such a kind of a perfect visual complement to one another.”

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The Albion River Bridge stands in stark silhouette as fog drifts in and the last light of sunset paints the sky in amber tones.
Courtesy of Rita Crane

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