Steele Street Bridge
HOME/INTRO • HISTORY • DEMOLITION • RECONSTRUCTION • EPILOGUE

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I-25 in Denver can trace its roots to 1938, when the Denver Department of Parks and Improvements proposed a Platte River artery. No action was taken, but that set the stage for Denver to build two short sections of highway on the east bank of the Platte River in 1939-'40 with WPA labor. Momentum built, and in 1944, at the direction of state highway engineer Charles Vail, Crocker & Ryan Consulting Engineers issued a report recommending a north-south freeway through Denver. The report set as the end points of the freeway 58th Ave./Acoma St. in the north and Colorado Blvd./C&S RR in the south. The report examined five possible routes in between the end points and settled on the "valley" routing, for it was cheapest. The report also included preliminary engineering on the valley routing, including alignment, profile, typical cross sections, and interchange layouts.

Southeast of Broadway, Crocker & Ryan recommended that the highway follow the Colorado & Southern Railroad Buchtel Boulevard alignment. "Topographic features", as the report put it, as well as land needed for interchanges, dictated the location. The report had the highway depressed under Logan Street, Pearl Street, and University Boulevard, but recommended the highway be above Downing Street. But by the time the Valley Highway was built, the design was for the highway to be depressed entirely from Logan to University. This section became known as The Narrows, due to the narrow-canyon effect on each side of the highway.

The first portion of the Valley Highway (numbered as US 87/SH 185) constructed was at its north end, including the interchange at 46th Avenue (later to be known as the Mousetrap). Groundbreaking was November 16, 1948, with the section opening in 1950. Construction on the southern portion of the Valley Highway, including the Steele Street bridge, began in the early 1950s, and the Steele Street bridge itself was constructed in 1953. As each portion of the Valley Highway was completed it was opened to traffic. At right is shown construction at Logan Street. The Valley Highway, in its entirety from 58th Avenue to Evans Avenue, was completed on November 23, 1958 with the opening of the Broadway Viaduct and the segment from 3rd Avenue to Emerson Street.

The Narrows, as seen looking north from Louisiana Avenue (Jan99).

The picture at right comes from the sidewalk at the north end of the Steele Street bridge (13Jan02). It is the stamp from when the bridge was built. F-17-CT is the CDOT structure number, and the year is 1953. It looks like 1963, but the middle raised part of the 5 has broken out.

Southbound I-25 at the old Steele Street bridge (25Jan02). The lanes of I-25 are detoured outward away from the center pier to give room for construction activity. With this picture you can see one of the deficiencies of the old bridge, that being the low vertical clearances under it.

Another view of the old bridge (13Jan02). This is looking south.

Looking west (northbound) along I-25 from the old bridge (13Jan02). You can see demolition operations have already begun in the median.

Steele Street Bridge:
HOME/INTRO • HISTORY • DEMOLITION • RECONSTRUCTION • EPILOGUE

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Page created 19 April 2002
Last updated 21 September 2002

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