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The significance of this bridge to the history of Nebraska bridge building can hardly be overstated. This remarkable structure is significant as perhaps the best remaining example of the state aid bridges. Although some 77 structures were built throughout the state under this program between 1912 and 1936, only 17 remain in use. The Sutherland Bridge is also technologically significant as the best example in the state of concrete arch construction. Moreover, of the 17 multiple-span concrete arch bridges built under the state aid program in the 1910s and 1920s, all but the Sutherland Bridge have been destroyed or substantially altered, leaving this structure as the sole intact example of this important construction trend. Located five miles north of Sutherland on Prairie Trace Road. At the far east edge of Sutherland, just east of Ozzie's General Store, turn north off of Highway This road becomes Prairie Trace, and is paved all the way to the Sutherland State Aid Bridge, which is still the only crossing of the North Platte River. Local school kids frequently "decorate" this bridge with graffiti.
A section of hills along the South Platte River near Sutherland. Because the bluffs come very close to the river, early travelers were forced to traverse the bluffs above the bottom land. Some of the most clearly defined and well preserved remnants of the Oregon-California Trail remain here as evidence of the great westward migration of the mid-nineteenth century. Ruts can clearly be seen at the eastbound Interstate 80 rest area one mile east of the Sutherland interchange. On the National Register of Historic Sites.