The bridge spans the Tuolumne River just north of Lake Don Pedro, near the community of Chinese Camp.

Originally named the Tuolumne River Bridge, it was renamed in 2007 in honor of James E. Roberts by legislative resolution.

This bridge, located west of Yosemite, was necessitated by a new highway alignment the resulted from creation of the new Don Pedro Dam reservoir.

The top 70 feet of the bridge columns have an equilateral triangular shape to support the four lanes of proposed superstructure.

Peter Kiewit and Sons built the bridge as general contract with a gravel access road using switchbacks into the sides of the Tuolumne River canyon walls.

The AISC jurors wrote "this gracefully sweeping bridge fits beautifully into its setting.

Roberts, James E., Effects of curing and falsework support periods on dead load deflections of reinforced concrete slab bridges: final report / prepared in cooperation with the U.S. Dept.

Roberts, James E., Esthetics in concrete bridge design / editors, Stewart C. Watson, M.K.

Roberts, James E., Maroney Brian Chapter 40 Seismic Retrofit Practice, Bridge Engineering Handbook, 1St ed., Chen, Wai-Fah, Duan Lian Ed., CRC Press, Boca Raton Florida, (1999).

Oral History James E Roberts, California Department of Transportation Caltrans, pp 10.

Kempton, Will, Land Richard, et al. James E. Roberts Memorial, California Department of Transportation, [Caltrans], DVD, 59 minutes 11.