The Rio Puerco Bridge: A special place off 66

Interstate 40 travelers coming from or heading west of Albuquerque pass the Rio Puerco Bridge, which sits on Route 66.
Highway Hasman photo

People traveling west after leaving Albuquerque see nothing but open skies until they find a piece of roadside history on the north side of the highway.

Nestled between Interstate 40 and a post-1937 Route 66 alignment is the 250-foot-long Parker Through Truss designed Rio Puerco Bridge.

Built in 1933, the bridge opened the Laguna Cutoff to transcontinental traffic. Four years later, this stretch of highway became Route 66. 

In 1957, the truss was remodeled, and the lower portal struts were removed and replaced by lighter structs that were inserted above to create a higher clearance. Forty years later, the bridge was listed in the National Register of Historic Places. It is now being preserved by the New Mexico Department of Transportation.

While people can no longer drive over the bridge today, they can walk across it, take photos and create memories.

A refuge

I moved to Albuquerque in October 2021 and one of the first places I stopped at was the Rio Puerco Bridge.

I drove over to take pictures of the bridge at least twice a week. Over time, however, it became more than a place to improve photography skills. It became a refuge, a spot to hang out at and cool off after a long day or to recuperate from the disappointment of a team’s defeat in the NFL playoffs. 

While pondering ways to handle life's stressful moments I would capture the bridge in its glory on late afternoons. 

Looking east on the Rio Puerco Bridge
Highway Hasman photo

Little did I know, however, that the bridge would be an important place for other people. 

Taking a final trip

On a cool Saturday morning last October, a purple 2019 Dodge Charger pulled off onto the asphalt in front of the Rio Puerco Bridge.

Kathleen Davis and her friend Charles Thomas got out and walked across the bridge snapping photos and observing I-40 traffic. Moments later, Davis took out a small Ziploc-type bag filled with some of her dad’s ashes and poured them onto the parched Rio Puerco River. She sealed the bag and headed back toward the car when my sister (who was in town visiting) and I exchanged hellos with them.

Davis, a Tulsa, Oklahoma, resident, said they were heading west on one last road trip with her late father, Robert “Bob” Davis who died from cancer on Jan. 11, 2021. She and Thomas were stopping at various locations on their way to Morro Bay, California, spreading small amounts of her dad’s ashes in many places along 66 including off the Rio Puerco Bridge where she thought would be a good spot for parts of her dad to remain for eternity. 

As we spoke about their travel plans, Kathleen went to the backseat of the Charger and took out some artwork Robert made including a watercolor painting of a 1940s era car parked in front of a snow-covered rustic house, and a piece with a photo of a 1966 Ford Ranchero sitting in front of a computer designed Gibble Gas Station off Route 66 in Bristol, Oklahoma.

I was impressed by the artwork. I had to know more.

Kathleen Davis, standing next to her friend Charles Thomas outside the Rio Puerco Bridge, holds a piece of artwork that her late dad Robert Davis made.
Highway Hasman photo

'It's engrained in me'

Robert Davis was born in Portland, Oregon, in 1942, but he traveled all over including Long Beach, California, where he worked as a welder.

After being assigned to create signs and logos as a member of the U.S. Marine Corps in the 1960s, however, art became his passion. He would go on to college where he studied graphic arts. 

Years later, Davis moved to Oklahoma where Kathleen was born.

As she got older, Kathleen and her dad took road trips together where they played games like I Spy and listened to surfer rock artists like The Beach Boys and Jan and Dean. “And I had the trusted job of navigator in the time before GPS,” she said, adding that “I always enjoyed following along on paper maps.”

Being on the road was also a way for father and daughter to interact. Kathleen's parents got divorced when she was three so every weekend he would drive two hours each way to see his daughter. “Most of my childhood memories involved a car for that reason. It’s engrained in me,” she said. 

But it was his artwork that stood out to Kathleen. 

Pictured is a caricature that Robert Davis drew of his daughter Kathleen Davis when she was a high school freshman.
Courtesy of Kathleen Davis

"He would sketch little things for me when I was a kid - doodles on napkins and stuff," she said. "And I thought everybody's dad was artistically talented. It took me a while to learn that was not true."

Years later, it was time for Kathleen to share his talents with the world. 

‘Much better than the typical funeral’

After leaving the Rio Puerco Bridge, Davis and Thomas continued west where they left some of Robert’s artwork at gas stations, restaurants and other roadside establishments in Arizona and California. She even left a piece or two at Disneyland where Robert and Kathleen visited years ago.

“I think leaving bits of my dad’s art in increments across an area of the U.S. that he always loved was really good closure,” she said. “It was the perfect way to honor him and his talent."

After distributing the artwork, Davis and Thomas reached Morro Bay where they scattered Robert's remaining ashes at a rock garden and said goodbye. 

"The weather was great. The drive was great. The company was great,” she said. “And every art piece dropped/given away was like sharing dad with the world.

"I think Dad would have loved it, honestly. [It was] much better than the typical funeral. “