You may see a few photos from nearby locations here. Many shoots span multiple spots in the same session.
Bixby Bridge
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Bixby Bridge is the 1932 concrete arch span that crosses Bixby Creek twelve miles south of Carmel — one of the most photographed bridges in the United States. There's no walkway, so all the photography happens at one of three named pull-offs along Highway 1. A "stop on a Big Sur shoot" rather than a destination of its own.
You've seen this bridge. Even if you've never been to Big Sur, you've seen this bridge — Mad Men opening titles, every Big Sur travel poster, half the Pacific Coast Highway Instagram feed. A 700-foot concrete arch spanning a coastal canyon, completed in 1932, painted no color because the bare concrete weathers into the same gray as the Big Sur cliffs.
The lay of the land
The Bixby story I tell most often is the "we almost skipped it" story. Couple booked a Big Sur half-day, weather forecast was a marine-layer wall — the kind where the bridge disappears entirely. They wanted Bixby specifically; I told them we'd swing by, but to keep expectations low. We pulled into Castle Rock with the fog so thick you couldn't see the canyon. Two minutes after we stopped, the marine layer dropped maybe twenty feet, sat just below the bridge deck, and turned into a sea of cloud spanning the canyon. The bridge appeared to be floating on weather. We had about ninety seconds of that frame before the fog rose again and swallowed the whole structure. Those ninety seconds are the photos they sent in their save-the-date. Lesson I pass on to every couple now: don't bail on Bixby for fog. The weird-weather frames are often the best ones.
Make a trip out of it
Where to stay
Getting here
A few things about Bixby Bridge
When Bixby Bridge opened in November 1932 it was the longest concrete arch span on the California state highway system, 714 feet across the canyon and 280 feet above the creek.
— Monterey County Historical Society / WikipediaThe creek the bridge spans was originally called Mill Creek, after Charles Bixby's 19th-century sawmill. Bixby got the creek and eventually the bridge renamed after himself.
— Monterey County Historical Society / WikipediaBefore the bridge existed, getting from Carmel to Big Sur meant a winding inland detour up Old Coast Road that added hours each way. The bridge cut central Big Sur's isolation roughly in half overnight.
— Monterey County Historical SocietyThe bare gray concrete is intentional. Engineers never painted it, betting the surface would weather to match the cliffs. Almost a century later, it does.
— general engineering record / Visit CaliforniaThe bridge has appeared in the opening titles of Mad Men, on the cover of Death Cab for Cutie's 'Bixby Canyon Bridge,' and on more Big Sur travel posters than any other single structure on Highway 1.
— Wikipedia / Visit CaliforniaThere is no pedestrian walkway. Walking on the bridge is illegal and dangerous, and Highway 1 traffic moves at 50 mph across it. The shot happens from a pull-off, never from the deck.
— Caltrans / Visit California
Bixby Bridge also appears as Bixby Creek Bridge, Rainbow Bridge, Mill Creek Bridge, or Bixby Canyon Bridge.