Work to Begin on Replacement for Risky Bridge in Fillmore

Mary Ann Palmer has traveled the narrow Bardsdale Bridge in Fillmore the past 45 years, sometimes more than twice a day.

It’s not a trip she relishes, despite the two-lane bridge’s historic architecture.

“It’s scary,” Palmer said. When trucks are coming from the other direction, she said, there is barely room for the passing vehicles. She has seen many close calls and had a few herself.

Because of its narrow width, Caltrans plans to replace the 65-year-old bridge with a new, wider concrete bridge. The old one, built in 1928 to span the Santa Clara River, will be torn down when the new $6-million structure is finished in 1995, according to Caltrans officials.

The construction officially gets under way today when Caltrans and local officials are scheduled to ceremoniously break ground at the bridge, located on California 23, also known as Grimes Canyon Road, that links Fillmore to Moorpark.

For Palmer and other area residents, this is welcome news tinged with a bit of sadness at the passing of the bridge. With its mass of steel trusses on the sides and overhead, it is one of the last of its kind, according to Caltrans.

“I hate to see the bridge torn out,” said Palmer, who lives south of Fillmore in Bardsdale, “but it certainly is unsafe.”

In fact, a 1990 Caltrans report notes that 16 accidents took place on the bridge between 1986 and 1989, said Caltrans spokeswoman Patricia Reid. Because of its narrow width, the bridge does not meet state standards, she said.

“It’s obsolete,” she said. The lanes are each just 10 feet wide. The new bridge will have two 12-foot-wide lanes, and with shoulders and a walkway, it will be 45 feet wide--double the width of the existing bridge.

She said old bridge, one-third mile long, will be demolished after the new bridge is finished and opened to traffic. The new bridge will be erected immediately west of the original structure.

Reid said Caltrans had hoped to save the old bridge but was unable to find anyone who wanted the “quaint-looking” structure, which is painted green.

“We didn’t entertain it for a second” when the council was offered the bridge in 1989, said Fillmore City Councilman Roger Campbell. The cost of moving and maintaining the bridge would have been prohibitive, he said.

He would have preferred it if Caltrans had kept the old bridge, built the new bridge and made each of them one-way.

But to preserve it for history’s sake? “I don’t see it as a historic monument,” he said.

Members of the Fillmore Historical Society take a different view. They were disappointed when the city turned down the “aesthetically-appealing” bridge.

“We’d like to see it preserved,” said Dorothy Haase, executive director of the Fillmore Historical Museum. “I think everyone feels it’s historically significant, but no one has the money for liability insurance.”

The first bridge in that spot on the river opened in 1909 amid an all-day celebration that drew about 4,000 people, some from Los Angeles.

The Fillmore Herald put out a special edition and people sported buttons proclaiming: “All roads lead to Fillmore--Meet me there!” They ate beef that had been cooked the night before in huge barbecue pits, according to Ellen M. Finley of Fillmore. Finley has written a book, “The Arm of the Mountain,” about Judge Caswell Carl Elkins, who was the master of ceremonies for the affair.

The bridge was washed out in 1928 during the St. Francis Dam disaster and rebuilt by the county in the same spot. Since then, it has been used as a backdrop in television commercials and for at least one movie, “La Bamba.”