Backcountry marvel nears completion

Rebuilt cable bridge across the Salmon River is one of only seven of its kind in the world

By KATHY HEDBERG of the Tribune Apr 1, 2018



ABOVE: The new suspension-cable Manning Crevice Bridge that crosses the pristine Salmon River above Riggins is nearly complete.

RIGGINS - All that remains of a cable suspension bridge that spanned the narrow, rocky Salmon River canyon east of Riggins for more than 80 years are two concrete abutments and a pair of skeletal steel arms, reaching outward from the granite cliff like a spurned lover. ... In its place is a state-of-the-art 300-foot-long asymmetrical suspension bridge - one of only seven like it in the world. An 80-foot-high tower on the north side of the river holds six wound steel cables 3 inches thick that swoop down from the sky and grip the south side of the canyon. The cables are bored 125 feet down into the granite and held in tension to brace the steel-and-concrete deck, which is solid enough to support loaded logging trucks, farm machinery and river rafting excursions.

The $9.6 million Manning Crevice Bridge, set to be completed by the end of April, replaces the Depression-era link that employed scores of destitute young men and claimed the life of one during its construction. It sits 14 miles east of Riggins on the Salmon River Road, which ends five miles beyond the bridge at Vinegar Creek.
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An ambitious project

The old 248-foot-long Manning Crevice Bridge was built in 1934 by the Civilian Conservation Corps as part of an ambitious project to construct a highway through north central Idaho linking Riggins with the town of Salmon. ... The project was promoted by Idaho businesspeople, landowners, miners, politicians and developers who wanted to save time and money moving goods and services from one side of the state to the other. ... According to research on the CCC by Ivar Nelson, of Moscow, and Patricia Hart, an associate professor of history at the University of Idaho, camps were set up near Riggins and North Fork in the eastern part of the state where the men lodged while digging, blasting and carving their way through the Idaho wilderness toward a meeting point.

The cable suspension bridge was named after John C. Manning, one of the corps workers who drowned in the river during construction. The structure was built with creosoted timbers and concrete abutments. According to U.S. Forest Service documents, expenditures for the bridge in 1935 were $18,065.
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