This is a list of all 4 bridges from the suspension bridge inventory crossing Cosumnes River. Please note that different rivers with the same name will be grouped together. For example, selecting 'Bear Creek' shows bridges across several different Bear Creeks. Also, similarly named rivers are grouped separately. For example, 'River Dee' (UK) bridges are grouped separately from 'Dee River' (Australia) bridges. Wherever you see a Bridgemeister ID number click it to isolate the bridge on its own page.
Related Lists:
Bridgemeister ID: | 1088 (added 2004-01-01) |
Year Completed: | 1852 |
Name: | Huse |
Location: | Yeomet, California, USA |
Crossing: | Cosumnes River |
Coordinates: | 38.55323 N 120.84755 W |
Maps: | Acme, GeoHack, Google, OpenStreetMap |
Principals: | E.P. Bowman |
Use: | Vehicular |
Status: | Removed |
Main Cables: | Wire (iron) |
Notes:
"E.P. Bowman, an early motel keeper in Yeomet had a ferry across the Cosumnes and by 1852 had built a bridge there (J.M. Watrous had a ferry there also). Traffic was heavy and... [the tolls were] as much a 'gold mine' as most of the nearby river claims which ran for miles above and below the town. (Yeomet falls was below the bridge). The famous Mother Lode crossed the river in the vicinity of the town. Samuel Huse bought the bridge at Yeomet in about 1862 and owned it until his death. His widow Laura sold the wire suspension bridge and the exclusive right to collect tolls to John Ballard and W.H. Martin in 1883. William Miller purchased the property in 1887."It is unclear if the 1852 E.P. Bowman bridge was the same structure as the suspension bridge purchased by Huse ten years later, but it has been assumed here pending additional details.
External Links:
Bridgemeister ID: | 2116 (added 2006-09-10) |
Year Completed: | 1852 |
Name: | Wilson's |
Location: | Cosumne, California, USA |
Crossing: | Cosumnes River |
Coordinates: | 38.49229 N 121.17183 W |
Maps: | Acme, GeoHack, Google, OpenStreetMap |
Principals: | W. D. Wilson |
References: | DSL200106 |
Use: | Vehicular |
Status: | Removed |
Main Cables: | Wire |
Main Span: | 1 x 45.7 meters (150 feet) |
Deck width: | 12 feet |
Notes:
"Alta California July 27, 1852 reprinting an article from Sacramento Union mentions a wire suspension bridge built in Sacramento County across the Cosumnes. The span is described as 150 feet with a roadway width of 12 feet. One W.D. Wilson is mentioned as owner and designer. This structure, according to our best information, was the first suspension bridge in California."
"The quartz mill and house of the brothers Wiley, just beyond Butte City, were carried away by the torrent. At Ione City, William's brick stable had fallen, and several other houses had met with a like fate. On Sutter creek, the loss and damage had been terrific - bridges and houses being carried off like chaff. Mr. Haywood, proprietor of a quartz mill on Sutter creek, had been a loser to the amount of at least $75,000. We have it from good authority that in the counties of Calaveras and Amador not a bridge is left standing. Below Ione City, it is thought that there has been loss of life."which seems to imply a relationship between the Ione Valley, the Cosumnes River, and the bridge at Wilson's Exchange, but this may have just been coincidental that both "Ione Valley" and Wilson's Exchange were mentioned in the same paragraph; they are nearby. Present-day Ione is in Amador County a few miles east of Sacramento County. The Cosumnes River forms the northern border of Amador County several miles to the north of present-day Ione. Barry Parr notes that the Cosumnes River does not flow through the "Ione Valley," but Barry writes: "Recalling Daylor’s name in Historic Spots of California: 'Daylor established himself as a trader and hotel-keeper on the Cosumnes River about a mile east of Slough House. This place, which was at first known as Daylor’s Ranch, later became the Cosumnes post office.' (p. 290) The site of Cosumnes post office is about five miles downstream from Bridge House, and both are on the Sacramento-Ione Road.
"Last Saturday night, the reports of minute guns were heard, as if signals of distress, coming from the direction of a house where lived Mr. Martin and his family. The whole of Ione Valley was many feet under water. No boats were to be had, so that assistance might be rendered those in danger and distress. In a short time a heavy crash was heard, the signals of distress ceased, and our informant tells us that when he left the general impression was that Martin and his family had lost their lives. The wire suspension bridge over the Cosumnes river had disappeared - the house known as Wilson’s Exchange has also been washed away, and Daylor’s adobe house is flat with the ground. These facts go to show that throughout the mountain districts, as well as in the valleys, the destruction of property and loss of human life exceed the worst that was anticipated, and we shall hear repetitions of such tales of distress as the avenues for communication are gradually opened to us."
External Links:
"Mr. Wilson and part of the company concluded to seek the land of gold, while others kept to the original design of going to Oregon. On his arrival Mr. Wilson mined for a short time on Mormon Island and then moved to Hangtown, now Placerville, where in the winter of 1848-49 he built the first house erected in that place. The family then comprised six children; five more were born in California; nine grew to maturity and seven are living in 1889. In the spring of 1850 he moved down on the Cosumnes and purchased 6,000 acres of the Hartnell Grant, and built a tavern, long known as Wilson’s Exchange, across the river from what is now the Cosumnes post office. He was postmaster from the establishment of that office until 1868. He was by trade a millwright and built the first suspension bridge on the Cosumnes."
Bridgemeister ID: | 2117 (added 2006-09-10) |
Year Completed: | 1863 |
Name: | Lamb's |
Location: | Latrobe vicinity and Plymouth vicinity, California, USA |
Crossing: | Cosumnes River |
Coordinates: | 38.52222 N 120.95587 W |
Maps: | Acme, GeoHack, Google, OpenStreetMap |
Use: | Vehicular (one-lane) |
Status: | Derelict (last checked: 2020) |
Main Cables: | Wire (iron) |
Suspended Spans: | 1 |
Notes:
Bridgemeister ID: | 2129 (added 2006-10-21) |
Name: | (pipeline bridge) |
Location: | Mokelumne City vicinity, California, USA |
Crossing: | Cosumnes River |
Coordinates: | 38.25772 N 121.43273 W |
Maps: | Acme, GeoHack, Google, OpenStreetMap |
Use: | Pipeline |
Status: | Extant |
Do you have any information or photos for these bridges that you would like to share? Please email david.denenberg@bridgemeister.com.