A favorite spot of ours, along the northern route of The Lincoln Highway in California, is Big Bend, in the Sierra Nevada. This area is filled with history, including the first wagon train encampment across the Sierra, The Stevens-Townsend-Murphy Party.

The photo above was taken in 1915 when this was bridge was part of the Lincoln Highway. Here the highway crossed the South Yuba River, very close to where the wagon trains would have crossed during the 1850s and ’60s. This bridge site is located just downriver from today's bridge on Hampshire-Rocks Road. While the bridge is long gone, the abutments on both sides of the river are still visible.