Bridge of Lions | |
---|---|
Coordinates | 29°53′35″N81°18′29″W / 29.893°N 81.308°W |
Carries | 2 general purpose lanes of SR A1A and 2 sidewalks |
Crosses | Matanzas River (Intracoastal Waterway) |
Locale | St. Augustine, Florida |
Official name | Bridge of Lions |
Maintained by | Florida Department of Transportation |
ID number | 780074 |
Characteristics | |
Design | steel bascule bridge |
Total length | 1,545 feet (471 m) |
Width | 34 feet (10 m) |
Longest span | 87 feet (27 m) |
Clearance above | N/A |
Clearance below | 25 feet (7.6 m) closed |
History | |
Opened | February 26, 1927 (original bridge) March 17, 2010 (current bridge) |
Bridge of Lions | |
Location | St. Augustine, Florida United States |
Coordinates | 29°53′33″N81°18′27″W / 29.89250°N 81.30750°W |
Built | 1927 |
Architect | J. E. Greiner Company |
NRHP reference No. | 82001040 |
Added to NRHP | 19 November 1982 [1] |
The Bridge of Lions is a double-leaf bascule bridge that spans the Intracoastal Waterway in St. Augustine, Florida, United States. A part of State Road A1A, it connects downtown St. Augustine to Anastasia Island across Matanzas Bay. A pair of copies of the marble Medici lions guard the bridge, begun in 1925 and completed in 1927. They were removed in February 2005 and returned in March 2011.
Roads & Bridges magazine named the Bridge of Lions as fourth in the nation's top 10 bridges for 2010. Projects were evaluated based on size, community impact and challenges resolved. [2]
The United States Department of Transportation declared the bridge "structurally deficient and functionally obsolete" in 1999, prompting heated debates on what to do with the structure. A restoration plan was approved, but opponents continued to voice their opposition. Reynolds, Smith & Hills from nearby Jacksonville was awarded the engineering and design contract, estimated at $77 million, and projected to require five years to complete. [2]
Prior to the Bridge of Lions in 1925, there was a wooden bridge, called simply, "The Bridge to Anastasia Island" or "South Beach railroad bridge". It was built in 1895, and after a major renovation in 1904, the bridge could accommodate a trolley. The span contained no rise, and had a movable opening for ship traffic, and charged a toll for transit. [3]
The old bridge frequently broke down, leading to calls for its replacement over the years. The man considered the "Father of the Bridge of Lions" was Henry Rodenbaugh, the vice president and bridge expert for Henry Flagler's Florida East Coast Railway. In the early 1920s he organized the bond issue to finance the new bridge, selected engineers J. E. Greiner Company to design it—and had his young daughter Jean pour the first bucket of concrete when the work began in 1925. Its construction came at the height of the extravagant Florida land boom of the 1920s, and the bridge is one of its greatest landmarks. It was designed not merely to carry cars, but to be a work of art, and it cost ten times as much as more prosaic bridges constructed nearby at the same time. It was completed after the land boom busted, and the 1927 dedication ceremony had to be paired with the annual Ponce de Leon Celebration in cash-strapped St. Augustine.
The Bridge of Lions is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and was included by the National Trust for Historic Preservation (NTHP) on its list of the "11 Most Endangered Historic Sites" in the nation for 1997. The Bridge of Lions was later featured on the cover of the Trust's 1999 engagement calendar.
From its earliest days, it was hailed as "The Most Beautiful Bridge in Dixie." [4] It has long been a symbol of the nation's oldest city.
It gets its name from two Carrara marble Medici lions statues that are copies of those found in the Loggia dei Lanzi in Florence, Italy. The statues were a gift of Dr. Andrew Anderson (1839–1924), the builder of the Markland House, who spent the last decade of his life putting works of art in public places in the Ancient City. The statues were his last gift, and he did not live long enough to see them installed. He had them made by the Romanelli Studios in Florence, Italy, which a decade earlier had provided him with smaller versions which he displayed on the front steps at Markland. The Medici lions are also known for the copies placed in the Throne Room of the Royal Palace of Madrid.
A temporary bridge was constructed adjacent to the original bridge and traffic was diverted to this structure while the original bridge was being rehabilitated and reconstructed to look like its predecessor. [5] After nearly 80 years of service, an official closing ceremony for the original Bridge of Lions was held on May 26, 2006. Isabella Heard, one of the young girls on the lead float in the opening of the bridge in 1927, was there, in a wheelchair, to tie the ribbon for its closing 79 years later.
Several components of the original bridge were either rehabilitated or returned (as lost components) to the rehabilitated bridge. Primarily, the exterior or fascia steel girders were rehabilitated along with the bascule tower piers. Once the rehabilitation of the original bridge was completed, at a total project cost of $80 million and 4 percent over budget, [6] the temporary bridge was removed and used as part of an artificial reef just offshore. [7] The two lions were in safe storage for the duration of the construction. [7]
Renovation work was completed on March 17, 2010 when it reopened for use. [8] Following the removal of the temporary bridge (to an offshore reef), and landscaping, the restored Lion statues were returned after a 6-year absence, early in the morning of March 15, 2011, [9] principally completing the bridge renovation project.
The current bridge's west entrance features manicured gazebos, landscaped palm trees and a new publicly accessible dock extending partially into the bay. Currently per the Code of Federal Regulations, the bridge opens when requested by a vessel, but only on the hour and half hour between 7:00am and 6:00pm, excluding at 8:00am, 12:00pm, and 5:00pm on Monday through Friday other than federal holidays in the United States. [10]
The Sunshine Skyway Bridge, officially referred to as the Bob Graham Sunshine Skyway Bridge, is a pair of long beam bridges with a central tall cable-stayed bridge. It spans Lower Tampa Bay to connect Pinellas County to Manatee County. The current Sunshine Skyway opened in 1987 and is the second bridge of that name on the site. It was designed by the Figg & Muller Engineering Group and built by the American Bridge Company. The bridge is considered the flagship bridge of Florida and serves as a gateway to Tampa Bay. The four-lane bridge carries Interstate 275 and U.S. Route 19, passing through Pinellas County, Hillsborough County and Manatee County. It is a toll bridge, with a toll assessed on two-axle vehicles traveling in either direction at a rate of $1.75 cash or $1.16 with the state's SunPass system.
The Arlington Memorial Bridge, often shortened to Memorial Bridge, is a Neoclassical masonry, steel, and stone arch bridge with a central bascule that crosses the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. First proposed in 1886, the bridge went unbuilt for decades thanks to political quarrels over whether the bridge should be a memorial, and to whom or what. Traffic problems associated with the dedication of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in November 1921 and the desire to build a bridge in time for the bicentennial of the birth of George Washington led to its construction in 1932.
The Fremont Bridge is a double-leaf bascule bridge that spans the Fremont Cut in Seattle, Washington. The bridge, which connects Fremont Avenue North and 4th Avenue North, connects the neighborhoods of Fremont and Queen Anne.
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The W. Howard Frankland Bridge is the central fixed-link bridge spanning Old Tampa Bay from St. Petersburg, Florida to Tampa, Florida. It is one of three bridges connecting Hillsborough County and Pinellas County; the others being Gandy Bridge and Courtney Campbell Causeway. The bridge carries Interstate 275 and is by far the most traveled of the bay's bridges.
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Locally known as Gulf Boulevard and Blind Pass Road, State Road 699 is a 15-mile-long road running the length of the Pinellas County barrier islands in the Gulf of Mexico and serving the popular beaches near St. Petersburg, Clearwater, and Largo. The southern terminus of SR 699 is at the extreme western end of Pinellas Bayway in St. Pete Beach; the northern terminus is the extreme western end of SR 688 in Indian Rocks Beach. State Road 699 is the closest Gulf Coast analog to SR A1A on the Atlantic coast of Florida: indeed, the southernmost two miles (3 km) of SR 699 are part of a loop that Florida Department of Transportation designated as A19A.
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Anastasia Island is a barrier island located off the northeast Atlantic coast of Florida in the United States. It sits east of St. Augustine, running north–south in a slightly southeastern direction to Matanzas Inlet. The island is about 14 miles (23 km) long and an average of 1 mile in width. It is separated from the mainland by the Matanzas River, part of the Intracoastal waterway. Matanzas Bay, the body of water between the island and downtown St. Augustine, opens into St. Augustine Inlet.
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