The Lagunitas Bridge and the Bridges of Ross

ROSS WALKING TOUR

This bridge was originally built prior to 1903, in wood

In the earliest days or Ross, Lagunitas Road was a main artery used for hauling lumber down from the hills above Phoenix Gulch to the Ross Landing for shipping. (It was referred to as “Skid Road,” because teams of oxen were used to pull the giant logs along using skids.) This bridge crossing Corte Madera Creek was an early effort on the part of the San Francisco Bridge Company, and was originally made of wood.

The wood wasn’t durable, but repairs would be expensive

In 1908, at the second meeting of the Board of Trustees of the town of Ross, a member noted that the bridge had seen a lot of wear and that his wife offered to pay to have it repaired.

Lagunitas Bridge, 1903
(photo courtesy of Dewey Livingston)

A committee was formed to look into the cost of the repairs. Their initial estimate was $350.00, but upon further inspection they revised the estimate to $400 – $435, which exceeded the entire repair budget for the whole town! And this would only be a patch and probably not last over three years. Then the board started thinking: What about the other bridges? What are they like and will they also need repairs soon?

Prudence being the better part of valor, they decided to float a bond issue of $10,000 to replace all five existing wooden bridges in town with concrete structures. The estimated cost of rebuilding the five new bridges was $12,500, but the board felt that if the bond measure passed, they could find the additional money somewhere.

The bridge was rebuilt in 1909, in concrete

At a special election on May 15, 1909, the measure to replace the bridges passed by a healthy margin of 75 to 7. The board resolved to have John Buck Leonard, a civil engineer and bridge builder with offices in San Francisco, design the bridges and inspect the work. Leonard was one of the pioneers of concrete bridge building and an early advocate of the use of reinforcing bars in their construction. The use of concrete in bridge construction was not common in the early 1900s, but the material had clearly proven itself in the rebuilding of San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake.

The construction firm Glen and Houghton built the bridge, and Laurence Thompson was hired as the superintendent for the project. The five bridges were completed and opened for full use on Thursday, January 13, 1910.

Lighting electroliers were added in 1911

A year after the Lagunitas bridge was completed, a move was put forward to modernize it with the installation of electric lights. Harriet DeWitt Kittle submitted a design to the board for an electrolier, and suggested that four of them be placed on the Lagunitas Road bridge. The cost of $55 for installation and wiring for electricity was paid for by Mrs. Kittle. Soon, the neighborhoods near the other four bridges voted to have identical artistic electroliers installed on their bridges as well.

Lagunitas Bridge, 1911

As work progressed on the Ross Bridges, the adjoining communities of San Anselmo and Fairfax looked to their bridges and soon found holes, splinters, and decay. They followed Ross's lead and within a few years there were 28 new bridges in the three townships—quite a few modeled after John B. Leonard’s design and proven techniques.

FINDING THE OTHER BRIDGES

The first bridge and the one that started it all is the Lagunitas Road Bridge, in the heart of the town of Ross. The path of the Creek goes north and, after a while, forks. The North Fork, San Anselmo Creek, flows under the Sir Francis Drake Blvd bridge, which is the most heavily trafficked. The left fork, Ross Creek, takes you to the Shady Lane bridge and then the Norwood Ave bridge. Following a southeasterly course, the creek goes under the Glenwood Ave bridge where Glenwood joins Lagunitas Rd.

ADDITIONAL INFO

The bridge on Lagunitas Road and the other four bridges in Ross represent the only cluster of John B. Leonard's work statewide. Some of the bridges are now pitted and moss covered, but each is a beauty in its own right, even though many of Leonard's other bridges have fallen victim to the Wrecking Ball of progress.

In 1979, an application was made to have the Ross Bridges added to the US Department of the Interiors National Register of Historic Places. They were placed in category 2, which means they have been nominated. But alas, the mills of the political gods do grind slowly. More than 40 years later, it would appear the application has been taken off life support.