Photographs of the Bridges
Arlington Memorial Bridge, Washington, DC
The Arlington Memorial Bridge is perhaps the closest thing that Washington, DC, has to a recognizable bridge that serves as a symbol for the entire city. The bridge is situated in the middle of the monumental core of the city, at the western end of the Mall, and connecting the Lincoln Memorial to the Custis-Lee Mansion and Arlington National Cemetery.
Although the bridge was proposed shortly after the Civil War, as a monument to Ulysees S. Grant, it was not constructed immediately. Debate continued on the various designs, orientations, heights, and commemorative functions of the bridge until, in 1922, President Warren G. Harding was caught in a three-hour traffic jam trying to reach the dedication of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the cemetery in 1922. Construction was authorized in 1925, and the bridge opened to traffic in 1932.
The bridge is a series of nine arches, with a central span that was originally a moveable drawspan, flanked by four concrete arches on each side. The concrete arches are sheathed in white granite, resulting in a bright, sparkling white appearance that complements the marble and granite memorials on the National Mall and the cemetery. The balustrade and tops of the piers are also white granite, carved into geometric designs and benches. Large, carved medallions depicting eagles are shown on the outer facing of the bridge.
The drawspan was included on the central arch to allow commercial shipping to reach the port of Georgetown. However, the Fourteenth Street Bridge later closed off shipping access, and the drawspan had not been used since the 1960s. It was finally completely removed in 2020 during a major renovation in 2020, and replaced by a fixed steel span. However, the operations room for the drawspan was preserved, and is identifiable by a set of white granite stairs leading down from the northern sidewalk to a green patinaed bronze door.
In 1950, Italy gifted four large, allegorical bronze statues to the United States. Two of these, equestrian statues representing Sacrifice and Valor, as the Arts of War, flank the eastern entrance to the bridge. The other two, Aspiration and Literature, and Music and Harvest, representing the Arts of Peace, flank the nearby entrance to the Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway. The western end of the bridge is flanked by four twenty-five foot-high granite monuments topped by stone-carved eagles. Two of the monuments flank the western entrance to the Arlington Memorial Bridge, and two others flank the entrance to the Boundary Channel Bridge, which is a short extension of the main bridge across the narrow channel separating Columbia Island from the western shore of the river in Virginia.
I have provided a much more detailed description of the Arlington Memorial Bridge in both of my books – Bridgespotting: A Guide to Bridges that Connect People, Places, and Times, and Bridges of Washington, DC: A History and Guide.
