Dumbarton Bridge (Washington, D.C.)

Around 1905, the residents of Georgetown wanted to reduce traffic to Washington along M Street.{{cite news |title= Favor Rock Creek Tunnel: Georgetown Citizen's Association Looks Askance at Q Street Bridge |newspaper= The Washington Post |date= January 10, 1905 |page= 9 |url= https://www.proquest.com/docview/144535433/}} One frequently proposed idea was to divert the water of Rock Creek through a tunnel under current-day 27th Street NW, then fill in Rock Creek's beds, and extend Georgetown's streets to Washington. Many Georgetown residents disliked Rock Creek because it was filled with stagnant water and trash.{{cite news |title= Rock Creek Drive |newspaper= The Washington Post |date= October 24, 1910 |page= 1 |url= https://www.proquest.com/docview/144997219/ }} The cost of diverting and filling in the creek was estimated to be $4.5 million.{{cite news |title= Spanning Rock Creek: Residents Are Divided Between Bridge and Culvert |newspaper= The Washington Post |date= January 26, 1905 |page= 11 |url= https://www.proquest.com/docview/144618323/ }} Estimates to build the bridge ranged from $150,000 to $200,000, while the estimate to divert and fill in the creek and extend streets $1.3 million.{{cite news |title= Rock Creek Conduit |newspaper= The Washington Post |date= May 11, 1906 |page= 14 |url= https://www.proquest.com/docview/144682327/ }}

Another idea was to move the Woodley Lane Bridge to the Q Street location rather than build a new bridge altogether.{{cite news |title= Another Bridge Plan: Woodley Lane Structure for Q Street Crossing |newspaper= The Washington Post |date= February 10, 1905 |page= 10 |url= https://www.proquest.com/docview/144547313/ }} Engineers determined that the cost to move the Woodley Lane bridge would be too great{{cite news |title= Bridge Plan Vetoed: Cost of Moving Woodley Lane Structure Too Great |newspaper= The Washington Post |date= February 11, 1905 |page= 10 |url= https://www.proquest.com/docview/144545818/ }} and the Woodley Lane Bridge would not be available to be moved until its replacement, the Connecticut Avenue Bridge, was completed.{{cite news |title= Hopes for Bridge Fading: Difficulties in Way of Providing a Structure at Q Street: Some Fatal Fault in Every Plan Thus Far Suggested, Col. Biddle Says in Report |newspaper= The Washington Post |date= February 14, 1905 |page= 10 |url= https://www.proquest.com/docview/144622014/}}

Legislation to fund the bridge's construction was introduced to Congress in December 1910,{{cite news |title= Needs of District Show By Report |newspaper= The Washington Post |date= December 6, 1910 |page= 1 |url= https://www.proquest.com/docview/144976192/ }} and Congress approved it two months later.{{cite news |title= City's Budget Raised |newspaper= The Washington Post |date= February 11, 1911 |page= 4 |url= https://www.proquest.com/docview/145057669/ }} Congress appropriated $275,000 to build the bridge and $75,000 to condemn property, including a land west of Rock Creek being used as a street car yard, in order to extend Q Street to the bridge.{{cite news |title= Bridge Plan Unwise: Expert Reports Against Removal to Q Street |newspaper= The Washington Post |date= February 9, 1905 |page= 10 |url= https://www.proquest.com/docview/144650548/ }}{{cite news |title= Delays Rock Creek Bridge |newspaper= The Washington Post |date= June 23, 1912 |page= F4 |url= https://www.proquest.com/docview/145179726/ }}

File:Buffalo of Dumbarton Bridge - 6.jpg on the Dumbarton Bridge, created by Alexander Phimister Proctor]]

File:Detail of Indian sculpted by A. Phimster Proctor from life mask of Chief Kicking Bear - Q Street Bridge, Spanning Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway, Washington, DC.tiff by Glenn Brown, on Dumbarton Bridge]]

The bridge's design was by Glenn Brown, and the engineering design was by Daniel B. Luten.{{cite news |title= New Q Street Bridge Opened |newspaper= The Washington Post |date= December 25, 1915 |page= 12 |url= https://www.proquest.com/docview/145401834/ }}

The bridge is significant as showing the impact of the City Beautiful movement in Washington and the association of architects, engineers and sculptors with the city's new Commission of Fine Arts. The architects studied photographs of bridges around the world choosing as models a Roman aqueduct and a mountain bridge in Italy with intent to set a precedent for further city bridges. The color of the bridge's stone was intended to evoke the warm tones of Spain and Italy. Along with the buffalo theme the arches are decorated by Indian head designs{{citation |format= photograph |first= Jack E. |last= Boucher |date= 1993 |title= 6. Southeast Elevation, Looking West — Q Street Bridge, Spanning Rock Creek & Potomac Parkway, Washington, District of Columbia, DC |publisher= Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division |url= https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/dc0775.photos.047878p/resource/ }} by Glenn Brown based on a life mask of the Sioux Chief Kicking Bear in the Smithsonian Institution.

The curved design is due to need to match the section of Q Street NW in Dupont Circle that is slightly north of the section in Georgetown.{{cite news |title= Tells of Bridge Here |newspaper= The Washington Post |date= November 7, 1915 |page= R6 |url= https://www.proquest.com/docview/145447078/ }} In order to accommodate the bridge's approach and to keep the street continuous within Georgetown the Dumbarton House, then known as Bellevue, was moved about {{convert|100|ft}} northward from its original site in the middle of the current Q Street to its present position on the north side of the Street.{{cite web |url=http://dumbartonhouse.org/residents |title=Dumbarton House: Chronology |author=The National Society of The Colonial Dames of America |year=2012 |work=Dumbarton House |publisher=The National Society of The Colonial Dames of America |access-date=23 September 2013}}

The District requested bids to construct the bridge in June 1913,{{cite news |title= All Bridge Bids Too High: Only Four Contractors Make Offer to Span Rock Creek at Q Street |newspaper= The Washington Post |date= June 26, 1913 |page= 14 |url= https://www.proquest.com/docview/145264739/ }} but none of the four bids were within the appropriated budget.{{cite news |title= Will Scale Plans to Start Bridge |newspaper= The Washington Post |date= June 29, 1913 |page= ES8 |url= https://www.proquest.com/docview/145243889/}}

The plans were modified so that there would only be five spans rather than seven in order to save costs.{{cite news |title= New Plans for Bridge: Not Enough Money to Build Q Street Spans as First Intended |newspaper= The Washington Post |date= August 24, 1913 |page= FRC3 |url= https://www.proquest.com/docview/145252583/ }} The project went out to bid again in November.{{cite news |title= Pushing Bridge Work |newspaper= The Washington Post |date= November 3, 1913 |page= 14 |url= https://www.proquest.com/docview/145258517/ }} A.L. Guidone won the construction bid.{{cite news |title= City News in Brief |newspaper= The Washington Post |date= January 13, 1914 |page= 14 |url= https://www.proquest.com/docview/145344926/ }}

Its four buffalo sculptures, the largest cast in a single piece of bronze, are by Alexander Phimister Proctor,{{cite news |title= Awarded Prizes for Art: Several Capital Residents Win Medals at the Panama Exposition |newspaper= The Washington Post |date= July 29, 1915 |page= 4 |url= https://www.proquest.com/docview/145413499/ }}{{cite web|url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pnp/habshaer/dc/dc0700/dc0775/data/dc0775data.pdf |title=Historic American Engineering Record—Q Street Bridge (Dumbarton Bridge)—HAER No. DC-38 |author=National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior |access-date=23 September 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222041750/http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pnp/habshaer/dc/dc0700/dc0775/data/dc0775data.pdf |archive-date=22 February 2014 }} who also designed the [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:16th_Street_Bridge_Lions tigers] on the Sixteenth Street Bridge.{{cite news |title= City News in Brief |newspaper= The Washington Post |date= July 15, 1915 |page= 4 |url= https://www.proquest.com/docview/145430345/ }} The budget to build the bridge was set at $275,000.{{cite news |title= City News in Brief |newspaper= The Washington Post |date= June 15, 1915 |page= 5 |url= https://www.proquest.com/docview/145364734/ }}

Construction of the bridge began on March 14, 1914. Construction of the bridge was completed by October 1915, although it took two more months to grade and pave the roads leading up to the bridge.{{cite news |title= City News in Brief |newspaper= The Washington Post |date= October 30, 1915 |page= 11 |url= https://www.proquest.com/docview/145438021/ }}

The bridge was officially opened at 4 p.m. on December 24, 1915. It was then known as the Q Street Bridge. The bridge was lit by incandescent lamps.

The Commissioners of the District of Columbia officially gave it the name of Dumbarton Bridge on June 5, 1916.{{cite news |title= Bridge Named "Dumbarton" Commissioners Recall Georgetown History in Q St. Structure's Title |newspaper= The Washington Post |date= June 6, 1916 |page= 7 |url= https://www.proquest.com/docview/145423139/ }} According to the Commissioners' written statement, "Dumbarton bridge commemorates the name of the tract of land upon which was laid out the easterly part of Georgetown, and to which Ninian Beall received letters patent from the British crown."

The Dumbarton Bridge was added to the National Register of Historic Places on July 16, 1973.

{{commons category|Dumbarton Bridge (Washington, D.C.)}}

• List of bridges documented by the Historic American Engineering Record in Washington, D.C.
• List of bridges on the National Register of Historic Places in Washington, D.C.
• National Register of Historic Places listings in the District of Columbia

{{reflist}}

• {{HAER |survey=DC-38 |id=dc0775 |title=Q Street Bridge (Dumbarton Bridge)}}
• {{Structurae |id=20030910 |title=Q Street Bridge}}
• [http://www.dcmemorials.com/index_indiv0001570.htm Buffaloes & Indian Heads statues at the Dumbarton Bridge in Washington, D.C.]

{{Crossings navbox

|structure = Crossings

|place = Rock Creek Valley

|bridge = Dumbarton Bridge

|bridge signs =

|upstream = Lyon's Mill Footbridge

|upstream signs =

|downstream = Bridge near P Street

|downstream signs =

}}

{{Registered Historic Places}}

{{Georgetown, Washington, D.C.}}

Category:Bridges completed in 1915

Category:Road bridges on the National Register of Historic Places in Washington, D.C.

Category:Bridges over Rock Creek (Potomac River tributary)

Category:Dupont Circle

Category:Georgetown (Washington, D.C.)

Category:Historic American Engineering Record in Washington, D.C.

Category:Romanesque Revival architecture in Washington, D.C.

Category:1915 sculptures

Category:Stone arch bridges in the United States