Taft Bridge

{{Infobox bridge

|length={{convert|901|ft|m}}

|extra=

{{Infobox NRHP|embed=yes

| name = William Howard Taft Bridge

| image = Washington DC Taft Bridge.jpg

| caption =

| location = Connecticut Avenue, NW over Rock Creek
Washington, D.C.

| coordinates = {{coord|38|55|14|N|77|2|59|W|display=inline,title}}

| locmapin = United States Washington, D.C.

| built = 1906

| engineer = George S. Morison

| architect = Edward Pearce Casey

| architecture = Classical Revival

| added = July 3, 2003{{NRISref|2009a}}

| refnum = 03000584{{cite web | url = https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nationalregister/upload/weekly-list-2003-national-register-of-historic-places.pdf | title = Weekly List of Actions Taken on Properties: 6/30/03 through 7/05/03 | date = July 11, 2003 | publisher = National Park Service | access-date = July 16, 2009 }}

}}}}

The Taft Bridge (also known as the Connecticut Avenue Bridge or William Howard Taft Bridge) is a historic bridge located in the Northwest quadrant of Washington, D.C. Built in 1906, it carries Connecticut Avenue over the Rock Creek gorge, including Rock Creek and the Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway, connecting the neighborhoods of Woodley Park and Kalorama. It is named after former United States president and Supreme Court Chief Justice William Howard Taft, and sits to the southwest of the Duke Ellington Bridge.{{cite web |url=http://www.planning.dc.gov/planning/frames.asp?doc=/planning/lib/planning/preservation/hp_inventory/inventory_narrative_sep_2004.pdf |title=District of Columbia - Inventory of Historic Sites |date=September 1, 2004 |publisher=Government of the District of Columbia |access-date=July 16, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090618002552/http://planning.dc.gov/planning/frames.asp?doc=%2Fplanning%2Flib%2Fplanning%2Fpreservation%2Fhp_inventory%2Finventory_narrative_sep_2004.pdf |archive-date=June 18, 2009 }}

Four statues of lions by sculptor Roland Hinton Perry, known as the Perry Lions, are placed in pairs at both ends of the bridge. On July 3, 2003, the Taft Bridge was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

History

The Classical Revival bridge was built from 1897 to 1907. It was designed by engineer George S. Morison and architect Edward Pearce Casey. Construction was overseen by U.S. Army engineer Henry C. Newcomer.{{cite news |date=December 5, 1952 |title=Gen. Henry Newcomer Dies; Helped Develop Arterial Roads Here |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/evening-star-newcomer/141384233/ |work=The Evening Star |location=Washington, DC |page=A-26 |via=Newspapers.com}} It is an arch bridge with unreinforced concrete arches and a reinforced concrete deck. The total length of the bridge is {{convert|274.5|m|sp=us}}. It has been called an "engineering tour de force" and the largest unreinforced concrete structure in the world.{{Cite journal | author = Donald Beekman Myer |author2=Abba G. Lichtenstein | year = 1996 | title = Washington, a City of Beautiful Bridges: Paradigms to Emulate |journal=Transportation Research Record | publisher = United States National Research Council | pages = 18–34 | issn = 0361-1981 }} In 1931, the bridge was renamed in honor of U.S. President William Howard Taft, who frequently walked the bridge while Chief Justice of the United States.{{cite book|last=Pringle|first=Henry F.|title=The Life and Times of William Howard Taft: A Biography|year=1939|isbn= 978-0-945707-19-6|publisher=American Political Biography Press|edition=2008 reprint|location=Newtown, CT|volume=2|pages=963–964, 1072}}

During early planning for the Washington Metro in the 1960s, the Red Line was slated to run across the bridge to connect Dupont Circle and Woodley Park. Instead, the metro was built underground.{{cite web|last=Myers|first=Aaron|title=Never Built: Metro's Bridge Over Rock Creek|date=October 2013|url=http://ghostsofdc.org/2013/10/01/never-built-metros-bridge-rock-creek/|publisher=Ghosts of DC|access-date=October 2, 2013}}

Between 2010 and 2022, half of the 26 people in the District of Columbia who died as a result of suicide on bridges died on Taft Bridge. In 2023 the District Department of Transportation began planning for the installation of new safety barriers on Taft Bridge.{{cite news |last1=Austermuhle |first1=Martin |title=D.C. Moves Forward With New Anti-Suicide Barriers On Taft Bridge |url=https://dcist.com/story/23/01/18/dc-starts-planning-anti-suicide-barriers-taft-bridge/ |access-date=21 June 2024 |work=DCist |publisher=WAMU |date=18 January 2023}}

Perry Lions

File:Taft Bridge Lion.jpg, at the Northern end of the bridge]]

The bridge is "guarded" by four large male lions, two on each end of the bridge (each about 7 ft. x 6 ft. 6 in. x 13 ft.). Two of the lions rest on all fours with their heads tilted upwards and mouths slightly open while the other pair lie with their eyes closed, apparently sleeping. They were originally designed and sculpted by Roland Hinton Perry in 1906 out of cast concrete (the bridge as a whole is one of the first cast concrete bridges in the country) and were installed in 1907.

In 1964 the lions were restored and weatherproofed by Washington-based sculptor Renato Luccetti, although this restoration proved to be less than entirely successful. When a major rehabilitation of the bridge began in 1993, the lions, which were in very bad condition, were removed for further restoration. They are currently stored in the Air Rights Tunnel on southbound I-395. The sculptures were finally found to be beyond restoring.{{cite web|url=http://siris-artinventories.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?&profile=all&source=~!siartinventories&uri=full=3100001~!18223~!0#focus|title=Perry Lions, (sculpture).}}{{cite news

|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2000/07/18/roar-restored-lions-to-rule-bridge-again/cfde4451-579e-44a5-9795-c99605e69f4e/

|title=Roar Restored, Lions to Rule Bridge Again

|newspaper=The Washington Post

|access-date=2019-08-24

|date=2000-07-18

}}

The United States Commission of Fine Arts worked with the city in the late 1990s to oversee the production of the replacement lions that now sit on the bridge. The sculptor Reinaldo Lopez-Carrizo of Professional Restoration produced molds based on the existing sculptures and photographs, and used them to cast new concrete lion sculptures that were installed on the bridge in July and August 2000.{{cite web|url=http://www.professionalrestoration.com/lions.html|title=Professional Restoration---Taft Bridge Lions Project}} The same molds were used to cast bronze lions installed at the main pedestrian entrance to the National Zoo farther north on Connecticut Avenue in 2002.{{cite web |url=http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Publications/PressMaterials/PressReleases/NZP/BronzeLions2002.cfm |title=Press Release: New Bronze Lions at Connecticut Avenue Gate - National Zoo| FONZ |access-date=2011-02-07 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121005062502/http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Publications/PressMaterials/PressReleases/NZP/BronzeLions2002.cfm |archive-date=2012-10-05 }} The white lion in the lobby of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts is a quarter-size replica from that effort.{{cite news

|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/is-a-giant-lion-statue-being-stored-under-a-dc-tunnel-i-decided-to-find-out/2019/08/31/4673859e-cae4-11e9-a1fe-ca46e8d573c0_story.html

|title=Is a giant lion statue being stored under a D.C. tunnel? I decided to find out.

|access-date=2019-08-31

|date=2019-08-31

|author=Theresa Vargas

|newspaper=The Washington Post

}}

Bairstow Eagle Lampposts

Twenty-four lampposts are equally spaced along both sides of the Taft Bridge. Created by sculptor Ernest Bairstow in 1906, the lampposts are composed of concrete bases (about 5 feet high, 8 inches deep and four feet wide) with painted iron lampposts (about 17 feet high and 4 wide) set in them. The pedestals are decorated with garland and a fluted column featuring acanthus leaves at the top and bottom. Above the leaves is a horizontal bracket with two globes hanging from each side of the column. Each lamppost is topped with a painted iron eagle with its wings spread.{{cite web | author=Save Outdoor Sculptures! | year=1993 | title=Bairstow Eagle Lampposts (sculpture) | work=SOS! | publisher=Smithsonian | url=http://siris-artinventories.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?&profile=all&source=~!siartinventories&uri=full=3100001~!15845~!0#focus | access-date= 5 May 2010}}

A replica of the Bairstow eagles is seen in a World War I monument in Middletown, Delaware.{{cite web | author=Al Kemp | year=2008 | title=Eagle eyes a must to notice swap | work=News | publisher=The News Journal| url=http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20080115/NEWS/801150344/Eagle-eyes-a-must-to-notice-swap | access-date= 1 February 2011}}{{Dead link|date=April 2011}}

Gallery

File:Conn ave bridge 2.JPG|Eagle Lampposts

File:Taft - lamp posts.JPG|Eagle Lampposts

File:Taft Bridge - facing south.JPG|Bridge from the south with Lampposts

File:Perry Lion Front.jpg|Perry Lion at the Bridge

File:Perry Lions.JPG|Full length view of a Perry Lion

File:Perry Lion National Zoo Proper Left.jpg|Lion at the National Zoo

File:Perry Lion National Zoo Head Down.jpg|Lion at the National Zoo

References

External links

{{HAER |survey=DC-6 |id=dc0594 |title=Connecticut Avenue Bridge}}
{{Structurae |id=20001280 |title=Taft Bridge}}
[https://ghostsofdc.org/2014/04/16/1911-postcard-connecticut-avenue-bridge/ 1911 Postcard of Connecticut Avenue Bridge] - Ghosts of DC blog

{{Crossings navbox

|structure = Crossings

|place = Rock Creek Valley

|bridge = William Howard Taft Bridge

|bridge signs =

|upstream = Duke Ellington Memorial Bridge

|upstream signs =

|downstream = Shoreham Hill Bridge

|downstream signs =

}}

Category:1907 establishments in Washington, D.C.

Category:Bridges completed in 1907