‘Orgy of smashing, crashing and exploding vehicles.’ Paso bridge was part of movie history
Truss bridges were the way roads crossed ravines in the early 20th century, but the landmarks are slowly fading from the scene.
One exception is the 110-year-old Estrella River Bridge in the Whitley Gardens community near Paso Robles.
San Luis Obispo County is finishing an approximately $2.4 million renovation to the bridge on River Grove Drive.
A plate on the bridge lists the county supervisors who funded the project, as well as county surveyor A.F. Parsons.
The steel truss bridge cost $16,945 to build, with the winning bid going to Charles W. Corbaley. It was accepted by the county in January 1910, as reported in the Tribune.
Corbalay was a minor celebrity back then. His visits to the county were occasionally noted in the newspaper, and the Los Angeles contractor was involved in bridge building throughout the state.
Within eight months on August 23, 1910, the bridge was completed and supervisors Black, Cliff and Donovan spent a day going out to inspect it.
The Estrella River Bridge was soon tested by major flooding.
The Tribune reported in Feb. 10, 1914, that “Our steel bridge across the Estrella stood the high waters and is in as good shape as ever, but we are cut off from Paso Robles and San Miguel at present.” That was due to washed out roads.
According to the county, the Estrella River Bridge served as the primary route between Paso Robles and the Central Valley before the State Route 46 bridge was constructed in 1955.
What is a truss bridge?
Railroads drove early bridge development but, by the early 20th century, the popularity of the automobile was pressuring counties and later the state to improve roads. California was also experiencing rapid population growth.
According to the book “Historic Highway Bridges in California,” the American Bridge Company — a subsidiary of U.S. Steel — was the industry giant. At one time, it had half the bridge fabricating capacity in America.
The company offered standardized trusses that it, county surveyors or state engineers could assemble to suit.
Most truss bridges have a roadway deck that is supported by a series of struts, chords and posts. Sometimes they were hidden below the deck but more often needed to be above the deck and river flow.
The Pratt-style truss is the most common in California and the rest of the country.
“It was economical, tested, and could be used for most crossings of 150 feet or less,” “Historic Highway Bridges in California” says. Variations were often used for longer spans.
The demise of steel bridges in SLO County
Truss bridges fell out of favor when city beautification advocates began calling them ugly.
According to the San Luis Obispo County Public Works department, modern concrete designs are more cost effective for new construction and maintenance.
One truss bridge over Pismo Creek is rusting to bits. Others in the county began to be removed and replaced in the 1960s, like the one on 13th Street in Paso Robles, or bypassed like the Salinas River bridge on Highway 58.
Some truss bridges designed and built in the Model T era, had limited capacity to carry modern traffic.
When the Whitley Gardens bridge project was first considered, replacement was the county’s initial plan. The community supported rehabilitation during the environmental review process; the bridge is eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places.
The work included modifying the truss to allow taller vehicles, cleaning and repainting, removal of timber walkway, replacement of concrete deck, rock slope protection of abutments and new bridge rail to protect trusses from vehicles.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony for the renovated bridge is planned for March 27 at 10 am.
Paso Robles bridge appears in car crash movie
Perhaps the Estrella River Bridge’s biggest moment of fame came as a shooting location in the 1982 movie “The Junkman.”
The Los Angeles Times described “The Junkman” as “an orgy of smashing, crashing and exploding vehicles — a project longer on twisted metal than on story line.”
In fact, “The Junkman” set a Guinness World Record for the most vehicles destroyed during a film production. About 250 cars, trucks, motorcycles and planes were wrecked during its 98 minutes of screentime — more than two vehicles per minute.
The Whitley Gardens bridge appears at the 2-minute, 41-second mark in one video clip available on YouTube. Viewers can even spot a airplane flying under the bridge.
Directed, written and produced by H.B. Halicki, “The Junkman” was a self-financed sequel to Halicki’s 1974 cult classic film, “Gone in 60 Seconds.” It’s the second film in a trilogy that includes 1983’s “Deadline Auto Theft.”
Halicki was a “scrappy independent (filmmaker) whose car crash movies won him a cult following,” according to his 1989 Los Angeles Times obituary.
Halicki wasn’t afraid to improvise. When the filmmaker heard that a train had derailed during the filming of “Gone in 60 Seconds,” he used it as a background to the action.
He also took risks to get his shots, apparently compressing 10 spinal vertebra during the climactic car jump in his first film.
“I’ve had some very close calls,” the Los Angeles Times quoted the filmmaker as saying in its obituary for Halicki. “I had a head-on collision with an airplane on my last film. We hit at a combined speed of over 200 m.p.h. and we crashed the plane and put about 80 stitches in my head. I was very lucky.”
Halicki’s luck ran out on August 20, 1989, while he was filming “Gone in 60 Seconds II.”
A cable attached to a water tower snapped and severed a telephone pole, which fell on him. The tower had been weakened to fall in an action sequence.
