To Get There
Castlewood
Canyon
State Park
Bridge to Nowhere
The View from Under the Bridge
As part of the 2003 bridge reconstruction, a
walkway was built under the south end of the
bridge. Take a naturalist-led hike that includes
the walkway and you’ll enjoy the views from this
unique vantage point.
As you look up the canyon to the east and down
canyon, past the Bridge Canyon Overlook, see
if you can spot any animals or birds. Beaver,
porcupine and mountain lion have all been sighted
in the canyon below the bridge. If you look closely,
you may see a kingfisher hunting or a great horned
owl taking a daytime nap.
Directly under the bridge are two plaques that
commemorate the bridge’s construction in 1946
and its reconstruction in 2003. Exposed bedrock
below the plaques gives budding geologists a
chance to examine two of the defining rocks of
the park – Castle Rock conglomerate and
ignimbrite (rhyolite).
Castlewood Canyon State Park
2989 S. State Highway 83
Franktown, CO 80116
303-688-5242
Email: castlewood.canyon@state.co.us
www.parks.state.co.us
CSP-CAST-200-4/07
In the 1920s, the State of Colorado decided to
take action and build a safer route. Rather than
improve the existing road, state engineers decided
to build a new one. They chose a route farther east,
perhaps finding it fitting that Colorado’s newest
road would follow some of the state’s oldest
“roads”, including the Cherokee Trail, Miner’s
Trail and Trappers Trail.
The Story of the
Bridge to Nowhere
Whether you’ve driven over the bridge one time or
a hundred, you may not have known that you were
driving over the “Bridge to Nowhere”
We’re referring to the bridge that is approximately
five miles south of Franktown on Highway 83.
From the bridge crossing over Castlewood Canyon,
you can see the flagpole of the Castlewood Canyon
Visitor Center and the timbered structure that is the
park’s Bridge Canyon Overlook.
Just how did this bridge, which clearly goes
somewhere today, get that name? Like many things
in and near Castlewood Canyon State Park, there’s
an interesting story about it. This story starts over
80 years ago.
Replacing the
“Ribbon of Death”
Before there was Interstate 25 linking Denver and
Colorado Springs, there was a dirt road between
the two cities. The old road generally followed the
same path as today’s interstate highway, but so
many accidents occurred that locals began calling it
the “ribbon of death.”
By the 1930s, the new Colorado Highway 83
had been paved form Denver to Franktown. Just
south of Franktown was the road builders’ biggest
obstacle: the 232-foot-wide Wildcat Canyon. (The
canyon was renamed Castlewood Canyon in the
1920s). A graceful, arched bridge was designed
and built to span the canyon – one of only six such
bridges in Colorado at the time. Construction was
completed in 1946, according to a plaque under the
south end of the bridge. It seemed clear sailing now
for the road to be completed to Colorado Springs.
But plans changed. State engineers were told to
abandon further work on the road. It had been
decided, based on politics of the time, that the
“ribbon of death” route was once
again to be the preferred one
between Denver and Colorado
Springs. The pavement of Highway
83 came to an abrupt end at the
north end of the sparkling new
bridge, leading to the nickname,
“The Bridge to Nowhere.”
Actually, the road continued south
to Colorado Springs, but it was an
unimproved dirt road – and stayed
that way for two decades. In the
mid-1960s, the dirt road was
finally paved.
Even Bridges to Nowhere
Wear Out
Ironically, the bridge over Castlewood Canyon,
once the “Bridge to Nowhere,” has been so heavily
traveled since its completion in 1946, and has
suffered such deterioration, that it eventually
needed attention. To minimize cost, save time
and preserve the now historic character of the
bridge, the Colorado Department of Transportation
(CDOT) decided to repair and enlarge it instead of
replacing it.
Construction began in summer 2003 and was
completed in four months. If the bridge doesn’t
look different, you’re right. The graceful arch of
the original bridge still spans the canyon, while the
deck and columns were replaced with new ones to
make a safer and wider road surface by nine feet.
The new foundation was placed on the bridge’s
old foundation.
