The Bridges and Their Names
The bridges were first seen by white man in 1883 when Cass Hite, a prospector, visited the region. National publicity was given to the area in 1904 when an illustrated article appeared in the National Geographic Magazine. In 1908 the area was proclaimed Natural Bridges National Monument by President Theodore Roosevelt. This action was the result of pleas of Utah citizens and of a Government surveyor that the bridges be protected by the Federal Government.
Owachomo is in view at the end of the road.
Early explorers had named the bridges for members of their parties or for relatives. When the monument was established, an effort was made to find Indian names which would fit the bridges. Paiute Indians, who still live in the country, had no names for the individual bridges. At the time they were questioned they professed to know only a single term which they applied to all bridges, natural or otherwise. This was “Ma-Vah-Talk-Tump,” or “Under the Horse’s Belly.”
Kachina Bridge—the youngest of the three.
At that time it was generally thought that the prehistoric people who had lived in the ruins of southern Utah were direct ancestors of the Hopi Indians, so it was natural, when no Paiute names were forthcoming, that Hopi names were applied to the bridges. They are:
Owachomo (Rock Mound)—So named because of a large, rounded block of rock on the mesa near one end of the bridge. Also formerly known as the Edwin Bridge.
Kachina—On one of the abutments of this bridge are numerous prehistoric pictographs, some of which resemble Hopi masked dancers, or kachinas. The former name for this bridge was Caroline.