Though Napa County was once home to well over 300 stone arch bridges and those that remain are among our most important local historic landmarks, Napa's stone bridges are constantly threatened. Stone arch technology is essentially unchanged since Roman times, but once in place a stone arch is virtually impervious to wear and tear. Modern activities, however, are not friendly to stone bridges. They get in the way of flood control and road widening projects, and their narrow roadbeds were not designed for modern traffic loads.

The Garnett Creek Bridge, on Highway 29 north of Calistoga, was constructed in 1914 near the end of Napa County's stone bridge heyday. In 2005 Napa County Landmarks had this bridge and several others added to the National Register of Historic Places. In the spring of 2010 a truck struck the bridge's parapet, shattering many stones and sending others into the creek bed. Napa County Landmarks worked with Caltrans and contractor Giampolini to ensure the bridge was repaired properly. The work was finally finished late winter 2011, but now Caltrans is calling the bridge "structurally unsound" - another threat to its existence. 

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