Percha Creek

The Ware Company of El Paso built the bridge, a single steel span carried on a Warren deck truss over a canyon about 120 feet deep, two miles west of Hillsboro. It took the old state road across Percha Creek on its way down from the Black Range until 1995, when a new highway alignment bypassed it, and the highway department kept it standing. Listed on the National Register in July 1997, it is the oldest and highest-rated Warren steel deck truss in New Mexico and the oldest of the state's few surviving steel deck trusses.

What the plaque says

Official Scenic Historic Marker Percha Creek Built in 1927, this historic Warren deck truss bridge spans Percha Creek, cutting through an impassible but beautiful gorge below. The bridge was constructed during a difficult project to build the Black Range Highway, now NM 152. This structure has been preserved by the New Mexico Department of Transportation and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Santa Rita Copper Mine — 27 mi
  The copper pit east of Silver City that swallowed the town it was named for, beneath a spire of volcanic rock long said to look like a nun at prayer.
• City of Rocks State Park — 31 mi
  Pinnacles of volcanic tuff up to forty feet high standing in the grassland between Deming and Silver City, worn out of an eruption 34.9 million years ago.

More markers nearby

• Sadie Orchard (1860-1943) — 2.2 mi
• Hillsboro — 2.2 mi
• Caballo Mountains — 17 mi
• Mimbres Valley — 21 mi