Alvord Lake Bridge

The Alvord Lake Bridge holds the distinction of being the first reinforced concrete bridge ever built in the United States. Completed in eighteen eighty-nine, this structure serves as a physical proof of the innovation brought by engineer Ernest Ransome. He pioneered a method of embedding cold-twisted square steel bars into concrete to give the material strength it otherwise lacked. While other builders of his time ignored his ideas, Ransome used this bridge to demonstrate the future of construction. Its survival through the massive nineteen oh-six earthquake and subsequent tremors proved his theories correct, long after he had grown frustrated with the building community and left the city.