Anderson Memorial Bridge

Last updated
Anderson Memorial Bridge
Anderson Memorial Bridge 2023h.jpg
The Anderson Memorial Bridge in 2023
Coordinates 42°22′08″N71°07′24″W / 42.3689°N 71.1232°W / 42.3689; -71.1232
Crosses Charles River
Locale Cambridge, Massachusetts to Boston, Massachusetts
Maintained by Massachusetts Department of Transportation
Preceded by Great Bridge (Cambridge) (1662)
Characteristics
Design arch bridge
MaterialReinforced concrete faced with red brick
History
DesignerWheelwright, Haven and Hoyt [1]
Construction start1913 [1]
Construction end1915 [1]
Location
Anderson Memorial Bridge
The Anderson Memorial Bridge in the 1910s AndersonMemorialBridge.jpg
The Anderson Memorial Bridge in the 1910s
The bridge in 2009, prior to renovations Anderson Bridge Cambridge 2009.jpg
The bridge in 2009, prior to renovations

Anderson Memorial Bridge (commonly but incorrectly called Larz Anderson Bridge) connects Allston, a neighborhood of Boston, and Cambridge. The bridge stands on the site of the Great Bridge built in 1662, the first structure to span the Charles River. It brings Boston traffic (from North Harvard Street) into Harvard Square (via JFK Street) and was finished in 1915. [1] [2]

Contents

Name

Often assumed to be named after Larz Anderson, the bridge was actually built by him as a memorial to his father, Nicholas Longworth Anderson. To do so, Anderson was helped by the huge family fortune of his wife, Isabel Weld Perkins. According to the Metropolitan Park Commission of 1913:

The Anderson Memorial Bridge replaces the inadequate, old wooden draw bridge which for many years had marked the former condition of the banks of Charles River. The new bridge was made possible by the gift of the Honorable Larz Anderson as a memorial to his father, a gallant general of the United States Army, Nicholas Longworth Anderson, renowned for his part in the Civil War... [3]

Construction

The bridge was designed by the architectural firm of Wheelwright, Haven and Hoyt and completed under the direction of John R. Rablin, chief engineer for the Metropolitan District Commission. [2]

Rehabilitation

From 2012 to 2016 MassDOT rehabilitated the Anderson Memorial Bridge at a cost of $25 million.. The project repaired the arches and replaced the parapets, sidewalks, lighting, and the bridge deck. The bridge now has three lanes of traffic (two northbound and one southbound) and one bicycle lane. [4] [5] [6]

Characteristics

Anderson Memorial Bridge is constructed of reinforced concrete accented by red brick. The bridge's spandrel walls and panels are fashioned to give the illusion of rough-hewn stone. It has a Georgian Revival design with neoclassical influences that visually connect it to the other bridges that span the Charles as well as the nearby buildings of Harvard University. [2] Architectural author Douglas Shand-Tucci writes:

In that splendid bridge one sees a distinctive architectural mode originally adopted for Harvard athletic facilities, a mode characterized by the distinctive use of concrete-wall fields dressed with red brick decorative trim...Wheelwright endowed the Anderson Bridge not only with the concrete and brick decorative scheme, but with extraordinary and, indeed, fully sculptural ornamental gilded mantlings, detail as flamboyant but infinitely more stylish than of the [Weld] boathouse. This mantling surmounts the entrance piers at both ends of the bridge and was once partnered by gilded street lamps, which ought to be restored.... The mantling was modeled by no less than Johannes Kirchmayer, one of the leading American architectural sculptors of the period. Its richness is perhaps explained by the design concept of the structure: 'May this bridge,' declares a bronze plaque on the Cambridge side, 'connecting the College Yard and playing fields of Harvard, be an ever present reminder to students passing over it of loyalty to country and Alma Mater.' [7]

The bridge stands next to the Weld Boathouse and was designed with "a high enough arch to admit the passage of all sorts of pleasure craft." It may be noted that both the bridge and the boathouse (built in 1906) were funded by heirs to the fortune of 19th century magnate William Fletcher Weld. [8]

In literature

The Plaque on Anderson Bridge QuentinCompsonPlaque.jpg
The Plaque on Anderson Bridge

Anderson Memorial Bridge is the site of Quentin Compson's suicide in William Faulkner's classic novel The Sound and the Fury. This is commemorated by a small brass plaque, the size of one brick, that is located on the brick wall of the eastern (Weld Boathouse) side of the bridge, just north of the middle of the bridge span, about eighteen inches from the ground in a small alcove. It reads:

"QUENTIN COMPSON

Drowned in the odour of honeysuckle.

1891-1910"

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harvard Bridge</span> Charles River overpass

The Harvard Bridge is a steel haunched girder bridge carrying Massachusetts Avenue over the Charles River and connecting Back Bay, Boston with Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is the longest bridge over the Charles River at 2,164.8 feet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles River</span> River in Massachusetts, United States

The Charles River, sometimes called the River Charles or simply the Charles, is an 80-mile-long (129 km) river in eastern Massachusetts. It flows northeast from Hopkinton to Boston along a highly meandering route, that doubles back on itself several times and travels through 23 cities and towns before reaching the Atlantic Ocean. The indigenous Massachusett named it Quinobequin, meaning "meandering" or "meandering still water".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Copley Square</span> Square in Back Bay, Boston, Massachusetts

Copley Square, is a public square in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood, bounded by Boylston Street, Clarendon Street, St. James Avenue, and Dartmouth Street. The square is named for painter John Singleton Copley. Prior to 1883 it was known as Art Square due to its many cultural institutions, some of which remain today.

Quentin Compson is a fictional character created by William Faulkner. He is an intelligent, neurotic, and introspective son of the Compson family. He is featured in the classic novels The Sound and the Fury and Absalom, Absalom! as well as the short stories "That Evening Sun" and "A Justice". After moving north to study at Harvard College, he eventually commits suicide by drowning himself in the Charles River.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shands Bridge</span> Bridge in Florida, United States of America

The Shands Bridge is a two-lane automobile bridge carrying SR 16 over the St. Johns River south of Jacksonville, Florida.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles River Esplanade</span> State-owned park in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.

The Charles River Esplanade of Boston, Massachusetts, is a state-owned park situated in the Back Bay area of the city, on the south bank of the Charles River Basin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adams House (Harvard College)</span> Residential House of Harvard College

Adams House is one of twelve undergraduate residential Houses at Harvard University, located between Harvard Square and the Charles River in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Its name commemorates the services of the Adams family, including John Adams, the second president of the United States, and John Quincy Adams, the sixth president.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Larz Anderson</span> American diplomat

Larz Anderson was an American diplomat and bon vivant. He served as second secretary at the United States Legation to the Court of St James's, London; as first secretary and later chargé d'affaires at the United States Embassy in Rome; as United States Minister to Belgium; and then briefly as the Ambassador to Japan. He also unsuccessfully sought appointment as Ambassador to Italy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edmund M. Wheelwright</span>

Edmund March Wheelwright was one of New England's most important architects in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and served as city architect for Boston, Massachusetts from 1891 to 1895.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Isabel Weld Perkins</span>

Isabel Anderson, née Isabel Weld Perkins, was a Boston heiress, author, and society hostess who left a legacy to the public that includes a park and two museums.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Fletcher Weld</span> American philanthropist

William Fletcher Weld was an American shipping magnate during the Golden Age of Sail and a member of the prominent Weld family. He later invested in railroads and real estate. Weld multiplied his family's fortune into a huge legacy for his descendants and the public.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Larz Anderson Park</span> United States historic place

Larz Anderson Park is a wooded, landscaped, and waterscaped 64-acre (26 ha) parkland in Brookline, Massachusetts that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The southwest corner of the park is in Boston. The park contains playing fields, picnic areas, gardens, waterways, an ice skating rink, and two sites of special interest:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nicholas Longworth Anderson</span>

Nicholas Longworth Anderson was a United States Army officer who served in the American Civil War as Colonel of the 6th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. After the Civil War, he was nominated and confirmed for appointment to the brevet grades of brigadier general and major general of volunteers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Walker Weld</span>

George Walker Weld (1840–1905), youngest son of William Fletcher Weld and member of the Weld Family of Boston, was a founding member of the Boston Athletic Association, which is the organizer of the present-day Boston Marathon, and the financier of the Weld Boathouse, a landmark on the Charles River.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Weld Boathouse</span> Boathouse in Massachusetts, United States

Weld Boathouse is a Harvard University-owned building on the bank of the Charles River in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The current structure was designed by Peabody and Stearns and is named for George Walker Weld, who donated the funds for its construction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Perkins Manor (Contoocook, New Hampshire)</span>

Perkins Manor is a historic building in Contoocook, New Hampshire. It is the birthplace of Commodore George H. Perkins and later served as one of several homes of his daughter Isabel Weld Perkins and her husband Larz Anderson.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Larz Anderson House</span> Historic house in Washington, D.C., United States

Anderson House, also known as Larz Anderson House, is a Gilded Age mansion located at 2118 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, on Embassy Row in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C. It now houses the Society of the Cincinnati's international headquarters and a research library on 17th- and 18th-century military and naval history and the art of war. It is also open to the public as a historic house museum about life in Washington in the early 20th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Soldiers Field Road</span> Street in Boston, Massachusetts

Soldiers Field Road is a major crosstown parkway in Boston, Massachusetts, running west to east from U.S. Route 20 in the northwest corner of Brighton to the Boston University Bridge. It follows the course of the Charles River and also passes by the campuses of Harvard University and Boston University. The road is named for the area south of the road on a bend in the Charles River. On June 5, 1890, Henry Lee Higginson presented Harvard College a gift of 31 acres of land, which he called Soldiers Field, given in honor of his friends who died in the Civil War: James Savage, Jr., Charles Russell Lowell, Edward Barry Dalton, Stephen George Perkins, James Jackson Lowell, and Robert Gould Shaw. This land later became the home of Harvard Crimson athletics.

Stephen T. Moskey is an American author and editor specializing in scholarly works on cultural history and American biography. He has occasionally published under the name Skip Moskey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Newell Boathouse</span> Harvard University boat storage facility

Newell Boathouse, named for a popular Harvard athlete killed just a few years after graduation, is the primary boathouse used by Harvard University's varsity men's rowing teams. It stands on land subject to an unusual peppercorn lease agreement between Harvard and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Anderson Bridge at Structurae
  2. 1 2 3 Bridges of Cambridge Archived June 18, 2006, at the Wayback Machine (link invalid)
  3. Charles River Conservancy Archived October 31, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
  4. "Massachusetts Department of Transportation | Mass.gov". Archived from the original on 2013-08-10. Retrieved 2015-03-06.
  5. https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2018/02/14/the-white-house-called-out-boston-bridge-but-used-wrong-picture/%5B%5D
  6. "A lesson on infrastructure from the Anderson Bridge fiasco - the Boston Globe". The Boston Globe .
  7. Shand-Tucci, Douglas, "Harvard University: An Architectural Tour" (pp. 94-95)
  8. ""The Welds of Harvard Yard" by Craig A. Lambert, associate editor of "Harvard Magazine"". Harvardmag.com. 2007-11-05. Archived from the original on 2012-12-05. Retrieved 2012-04-04.