Glen Canyon Dam Suspension Footbridge

Glen Canyon Dam Suspension Footbridge
Page, Arizona, United States
640 feet high / 195 meters high
1,280 foot span / 390 meter span
1958-1964

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To aid worker’s during the construction of the massive Glen Canyon Dam, a spectacular suspension footbridge was built upstream of the construction site across the Colorado river. With a span of 1,280 feet (390 meters) and a height of 640 feet (195 mtrs), it is the largest and highest traditional, tower supported suspension footbridge ever built. In 2006, the Kokonoe “Yume” Otsurihashi footbridge opened in Japan’s Oita Prefecture with a span of 1,280 feet (390 meters). A more accurate conversion puts the Japanese bridge at 1,279.5276 feet - about 6 inches short of the Arizona bridge!

The Glen Canyon Dam is a concrete gravity arch structure that is just as large as the much more famous Hoover Dam near Las Vegas. Behind the Glen Canyon dam is Lake Powell, one of the largest reservoirs in the United States with a 1,900 mile (3,057 km) shoreline. Construction of the dam began in 1956 and ended in 1963. The footbridge was used from 1958 to 1964, allowing workers to walk across the river from the south side where the town of Page was located. Despite the installation of wind stays to keep the deck from oscillating up and down, a walk across the “chicken wire” span was not for the faint of heart. This insecurity was magnified by an open grille deck where you could see the river straight down between your legs!

Glen Canyon Dam Bridge Elevation

An aerial construction view showing the massive dam thrust blocks that have been carved out of the left and right side walls of the Colorado River canyon. Image by Arizona Highways magazine.