William H. Murray Bridge (a.k.a Pony Bridge), Bridgeport, OK

The Bridgeport Bridge west of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma is as much a part of American folklore as the historic highway it used to carry.

Built in 1933, the crossing near the small community of Bridgeport formerly carried U.S. Route 66 across the South Canadian River, as "America's Mother Road" carried people from the East, Midwest and South across the plains seeking better lives in California.  The bridge, in fact, makes a brief appearance in the movie "The Grapes of Wrath" as Henry Fonda led his family like so many others in real life, west from Oklahoma to the Land of Milk and Honey.

The Bridgeport Bridge was built by the Kansas City Bridge Company of Kansas City, Missouri. The structure is unique in that it consists of 38 "camelback" pony truss spans, all built one right after the other and don't let the pictures fool you. It is not a short bridge... each of those spans is approximately 103.4 feet long. Total length, including two short concrete approach spans, is 3,944 feet, with only 125 feet of the bridge actually over the river channel. The rest of the bridge is over the floodplain that parallels the river.

38 trusses in all at almost 4,000 feet in length, Bridgeport is the longest single-span pony truss bridge in America and a signature Historic Route 66 bridge. With U.S. 66 decommissioned, the bridge now carries U.S. Highway 281.   Known locally as the "Pony Bridge" because of its pony-style spans, it also holds the name "William H. Murray Bridge," named for the governor who built the crossing during Oklahoma's famed dust bowl days of the Great Depression.

The bridge was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in December, 2020. Current plans call for a $22-million dollar renovation of the superstructure which will widen and strengthen it, but the iconic yellow steel pony trusses will remain, along with part of the original Route 66 pavement.