Gleaming brass posts and frame present the "Washington Bridges" historical marker at the mid-point of the original Rhode Island Bridge No. 200 in Providence, Rhode Island. This south edge was converted to a path for cyclists and pedestrians in 2014. The display features a pair of back-to-back signs; this is on the north side and reads:
WASHINGTON BRIDGES
New York City-based design engineer Clarence W. Hudson and lead contractor Merritt Chapman & Scott created an approximately 2,500-foot long, steel-and-concrete structure with 17 spans, including a double leaf bascule draw span. At 85 feet wide, the exceptionally broad bridge had two sidewalks, four automobile lanes, and two street car tracks. The Classical Revival-style treatment, designed by New York architect Carl L. Otto, embodied the "City Beautiful" aesthetic, with two granite pylons at each end, four towers on the draw span piers, semicircular refuge bays, and 40 bronze street lamps. Granite and concrete decorative elements on the north and south faces included a State seal at each arch keystone.
Washington Bridges 1928 to 2014
The Washington Bridges occupy the most heavily traveled vehicular crossing on the Seekonk River and are the newest in a series named for George Washington (see Crossing the Seekonk River). The current bridges were built over more than 90 years in four phases completed in 1930, 1968, 2008, and 2014.
When the Washington Bridge No. 200 was dedicated in 1930, the American Society of Civil Engineers called it "a product of a combination of the highest type of engineering and architectural skill that will long stand as an object of utility and beauty of which the people of Rhode Island may well be proud."
The I-195 highway project completed in 1968 incorporated the Washington Bridge. Bridge No. 200 was modified for eastbound traffic, eliminating the draw span. The new concrete-arch Washington Bridge No. 700 was constructed immediately north of the 1930 bridge to carry westbound traffic. Later, repairs revealed the need to replace the aging Bridge No. 200. From 2003 to 2008, the State constructed a new steel-and-concrete Bridge No. 200 infilling the 45-foot gap between the two bridges. The innovative project changed a narrow portion of the historic arch spans on the south side of the original Bridge No. 200 into a path and park for cyclists and pedestrians that opened in 2014.
Illustrating the narrative are six archival images from 1930 which show the bridge's construction and opening day and one photograph from 2002 which shows the 45-foot gap between the eastbound Bridge No. 200 and westbound Bridge No. 700 from a water level vantage on the Seekonk River.