California’s Mendocino Coast is a precipitous reminder that there’s no farther west to go. Here, the land plunges into the Pacific, met by dramatic bluffs as Highway 1 clings to the edge. Albion — 17 miles south of Fort Bragg, the county’s coastal hub — is easy to miss: a headland jutting west into the sea, an inland road leading to a town center of just over 150 residents.

The clearest marker for the community is the Albion River Bridge. One hundred fifty feet above the water, it carries Highway 1 across the river mouth, with Albion’s homes visible on the bluffs to the east, campgrounds tucked below, and the river itself stretching west to the sea.

This bridge is no ordinary crossing. Built in 1944, it is the last timber truss superstructure owned by the state of California still carrying highway traffic — a historic landmark that locals consider part of their identity. Picture a bridge high above the Albion River that looks like something out of a black-and-white Western: less like modern highway infrastructure, more like the skeletal framework of an old railroad trestle. Weathered wooden beams crisscross in triangles, forming a lattice that holds the roadway high above the water. That’s what the Albion River Bridge looks like.

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Set against grassy headlands, the Albion River Bridge carries Highway 1 across the river far below toward the Pacific.

But the state says its days are numbered. Caltrans asserts the bridge is in disrepair and potentially dangerous, and after 10 years of public process, it has officially unveiled designs for a modern replacement: seismically sound, easier to maintain, built to standard specifications but utterly lacking in any design poetry or marvel.

Albion residents aren’t ready to see the bridge replaced. Jim Heid, an outspoken member of the Albion Bridge Stewards, told SFGATE, “It’s hard to look at a photo of Albion that doesn’t also show the bridge.” To him and many others, the structure is inseparable from the town’s identity. As Heid put it, the bridge “is more than just a way of getting across the river. It is an emblem of the community.”

The Albion River........

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