Clover Valley Bridge

Stop 16: Clover Valley Bridge

Rocklin, Calif.- This bridge spans Clover Valley Creek in Clover Valley Park. It is the largest of the twelve granite bridges on the road that connected Joel Parker Whitney’s Spring Valley Ranch with downtown Rocklin.

Whitney’s diary says that he built his bridges in the mid 1880s while converting 40 acres of his 20,000 acre ranch into a baronial estate for his wife Lucy and their three small children. Total cost for the bridges was $6,826.


โ–ผ Roseville Today Featured Event โ–ผ Behind the Cellar Door

โ–ผ Roseville Today Featured Event โ–ผ Behind the Cellar Door

โ–ผ Roseville Today Featured Event โ–ผ Behind the Cellar Door

โ–ผ Roseville Today Featured Event โ–ผ Behind the Cellar Door

Whitney was enamored of British society and designed his bridges in the style of bridges in the English countryside.

The high quality of the workmanship indicates that the bridges were constructed by skilled stone cutters, but Whitney might also have employed Chinese laborers, possibly including some who had escaped from South Placer communities, including Rocklin, in the Chinese purges of 1877.

The source of the granite in Whitney’s bridges is unknown, although one old timer remembered that there might have been a granite quarry on the northern part of the ranch near the northern end of today’s Whitney Oaks Drive.

From this bridge Whitney’s road mounted the steep ridge to the west via a switchback and proceeded down the west slope. It bisected the granite boulders at the rear of today’s Granite Oaks Middle School, and then proceeded over relatively flat terrain to Whitney’s mansion called The Oaks. The road then headed for Penryn and Lincoln. The last two of the twelve Bridges are on the Catta Verdera Golf Course.

The Oaks mansion was on today’s Knoll Court above Mansion Oaks Park. A plaque at the end of the court marks the spot.

ROCKLIN HISTORY TOUR
Early Union Granite Company QuarryJoel Parker Whitney’s Oaks Mansion
Old St. Mary’s ChapelBrigham And Hawes Quarry
Rocklin History MuseumWickman-Johnson Home
Rocklin City HallClover Valley Bridge
Barudoni BuildingRocklin Cemetery
Roundhouse SiteVictorian Homes
Huff’s SpringRailroad Depot
Capitol QuarryCopp’s Quarry
Quinn QuarryPyramid Tomb
Finn Hall
Dedicated to Gary Day, a True Champion of Rocklin
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