Jordan River Bridge

For Lehi’s earliest settlers, the Jordan River was a natural boundary that prevented man and beast from traveling westward. To address the issue, Charles Hopkins, Ezekiel Hopkins and Alonzo Rhodes applied for and were granted a charter from the Utah Territorial Legislature Assembly on Jan. 21, 1853, to construct a bridge over the Jordan River. They built the bridge south of Main Street at Horseshoe Bend.

Lehi’s first city ordinance, passed July 8, 1853, regulated the tolls for the bridge. In 1907, the first bridge was replaced by a second wood bridge before a steel truss bridge was built in 1907. This bridge performed yeoman service until it was bypassed in 1947.

In 1914, a nearly identical bridge to the 1907 bridge was built here at 1500 N (9600 North and 7700 West by county coordinates). The contract for the bridge went to Midland Bridge Company for $4,380. The structure consisted of a rigid-connected Pratt truss, supported by 8-inch-diameter, concrete-filled steel cylinder piers.

In June of 1985, the 1907 steel truss bridge was dismantled to prepare for the Army Corps of Engineers’ Jordan River dredging project. Fortunately, the 1914 bridge was spared. In June of 1990, the 1914 bridge was bypassed with a new structure. For historical purposes, the bridge was saved for a footpath.