Pony Bridge, Oklahoma, Route 66

What is: A bit of a backroad excursion to a bridge in need of structural repair.

What was: an engineering marvel and key part of the 1930s realignment of Route 66. 3/4 mile Pony bridge uses 38 pony trusses acrosss the South Canadian River. It was a 1930s engineering marvel, on the upgraded alignment of Route 66. It is the longest truss bridge on the mother road. HistoricBridges.org believes it to be the longest simple-span pony truss in the entire country, both in terms of number of pony truss spans (38) and total spanning length (3,800 total spanned feet by pony trusses). With this realignment of Route 66, Bridgeport OK became a ghost town and the private toll bridge in the area was replaced by this modern pony bridge. A scene in the 1940 “Grapes of Wrath” movie was filmed here. Its official name is the William H. Murray Bridge.