Talk:Bidwell Bar Bridge

California Low‑importance

	California portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject California, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of the U.S. state of California on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.CaliforniaWikipedia:WikiProject CaliforniaTemplate:WikiProject CaliforniaCalifornia articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Bridges and Tunnels Mid‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Bridges and Tunnels, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of bridges and tunnels on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Bridges and TunnelsWikipedia:WikiProject Bridges and TunnelsTemplate:WikiProject Bridges and TunnelsBridge and Tunnel articles
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

It looks from the picture that the bridge is unusually low for a suspension bridge. Perhaps it is misleading to say "the bridge is not so high". -- Samuel Wantman 06:00, 7 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Rewritten as requested. --howcheng [ t  c  w  e ] 18:56, 7 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Original bridge is (or was) iron, rather than steel

In 1855, steel was a very expensive metal. It was used for things like swords, but not for things like railroad rails. Therefore, the article's current text is probably incorrect: "The original Bidwell Bar Bridge was the first steel suspension bridge in California." However, wrought iron was inexpensive enough for railroad rails. The "Bridgemeister" source lists the material as "Wire (iron)" which is highly plausible. About a decade later, new technology made steel much less expensive. A possibility, which someone may have researched, is that some wrought-iron portions of the original bridge were replaced with steel. Oaklandguy (talk) 01:52, 10 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]