North Spring Street over the Los Angeles River

Photos 

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Spring Street looking South The view from the Broadway Bridge http://www.youtube.com/user/bridgesoflosangeles View high-res version

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Details of the Spring Street Bridge Westward view of the Downtown from the railroad right of way beneath the bridge. www.bridges-of-los-angeles-county.com View high-res version

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Construction Plans http://eng.lacity.org/projects/bridge/historical_gallery/index.htm City of Los Angeles Bureau of Engineer View high-res version

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Old Spring Street Bridge Los Angeles Public Library Collection View high-res version

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Downey Road over the Los Angeles River The USC Digital Archive lists this photo of Downey Road Bridge as being taken between 1872-1874 (CHS-7059). Downey Road, later Downey Ave, eventually become North Spring. Photo taken by A.C. Varela View high-res version

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Downey Road over the Los Angeles River The Bridge is washed out in the floods of the winter of 1885-86. USC digital archive (CHS-9586). Photo taken by C.C. Pierce View high-res version

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Map of the Los Angeles River in 1917 The three main bridges over the Los Angeles River on the north side can be seen, Buena Vista (North Broadway), Donwey Road (North Spring Street), and Main Street USC Digital Archives

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Map of the Los Angeles River in 1918 Here is another map with a different listing names, confusing matters further. USC Digital Archives View high-res version

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North Spring from Base Photo taken by David Kimbrough

Map 

Los Angeles in 1881 (What Los Angeles Looked Like in the Year 1881) 

A quiet, slow-moving, half-way frontier town was Los Angeles early in 1881.... The change in the appearance of Los Angeles during the past ten years has been so remarkable that persons who visited then and who return now can scarcely recognize it as the same city. In 1881 the Spanish quarter, with its low, one-story adobe houses, was still an important part of the city, and adobe houses and stores were numerous elsewhere. The residences were nearly all of the cottage order, and few business buildings rose above two stories. The only
blocks of importance were those named after Baker, Temple and Downey, the first named being really the only building in the city of any architectural pretensions. In the last-named was located the office of this paper.

Much business yet clustered about the Plaza, around the little park in the center of which was a handsome row of well-trimmed cypress trees. The business center was then at the Temple Block, the business quarter being bounded on the north by the Plaza and on the south by First street. Where the Nadeau Hotel now stands was a German butcher shop, in an adobe building back of which was a horse corral and hay yard. Adjoining on Spring street on the south was a
planing mill. Spring street, south of First, had more bare lots than
residences and no stores, for business had not then begun to move so far south.

Property on Spring street, between First and Second, was sold at $150 a foot, which was considered a very high price. At two other corners of First and Spring were a saloon and a coal-yard. The Wilcox Block on North Spring, where Jevne's grocery now is, was the only good business building on Spring street. Where the Phillips Block now stands was an old one-story adobe building used as a city jail.

On First street there was no business east of Los Angeles street, the road being very bad. Los Angeles street was then, as now, the principal wholesale business street. Main street was then the leading residence street. I. W. Hellman, Gov. Downey and John Jones had fair residences there. On Broadway--then Fort street--were a few cottages. There were a few scattering residences out to the west as far as Pearl street. Even at that time Figueroa was considered a fine residence street, there being residences here and there as far south as Adams street, and on the latter street a number of houses had been built around the Longstreet tract, of a character that was then considered superior. The houses on other streets in the neighborhood were mostly shanties. Below Eighth street most of the town was planted in barley. Acreage in the Morris Vineyard tract, between Pico and Washington, near Main, was offered at $900.

Up Temple street, near Bunker Hill avenue, was a deep cut. Here an old frame and muslin building, called the Pavilion, stood almost alone. There were scarcely any buildings on the hills west of Bunker Hill avenue. Lots were offered this side of the hill at $100 apiece, without finding many buyers. Second street, west of Hill, was nothing but a wagon track. Beaudry was trying to supply the hills with water, which he succeeded in doing after a time. East of Main, both north and south at First street, there was quite a settlement of small buildings. Mrs. Woodworth's residence, at the corner of San Pedro and Second, was then a stylish place. Orchards and vineyards, on patches of from two to ten acres, covered much of this section.

The only bridge in the city in December, 1881, was that at Aliso street {Aliso Road - Ed.}, the Downey avenue bridge having been built very shortly afterward. East Los Angeles was a small settlement, consisting chiefly of Downey avenue, then recently laid out. Lots on the avenue were valued at about $100 apiece, and one groceryman was slowly starving to death. On Boyle Heights there were half a dozen houses, chief among which were the residences of Cummings, Hollenbeck and W. H. Workman. Where the Cummings Hotel now stands a Spaniard kept a little flour and plenty of whiskey. Teams stopped there as the "last chance" this side of Downey.

http://www.intranet.csupomona.edu/~reshaffer/la1881x.htm

This article suggests that the Downey Road (Ave) was built not earlier than 1881. However, the Photograph from the USC Digital Archive says that the photograph of Downey Road Bridge was taken between 1872 - 74.

Downey Ave was later renamed North Spring Street which is not connected with Spring Street. However Downey Park is still there right next to the LA River and North Spring Street.

North Spring Street Bridge To be Demolished

After languishing for years, the proposed widening of the viaduct is suddenly on the fast track for approval.

Although environmental review for the project started nearly four years ago, the project is now on an extraordinarily accelerated timeline, with the BOE rushing to receive City Council approval by June in order to keep state matching funds that are about to expire. The project would be funded primarily through the federal Highway Bridge Program, augmented by state and local funds provided through Proposition 1B and Proposition C.

The BOE’s primary justification for the project is to upgrade the bridge to meet “major highway standards” and to add pedestrian-bicycle lanes in both directions. In addition to stripping all existing ornamentation, the scale and dimensions of the bridge will be dramatically altered by nearly doubling its current width from 50 feet to 90 feet. No new traffic lanes will be added.

Although environmental review for the proposed widening project started nearly four years ago, the BOE didn’t release the draft environmental impact report (EIR) until March 2010. Less than three weeks after the close of the public comment period, the city issued a hastily prepared final EIR in May.

The primary justification for the project is to upgrade the bridge to meet “major highway standards” and add pedestrian lanes in both directions. The current four-lane bridge would be widened by approximately twenty feet on each side to accommodate new eight-foot-wide sidewalks, five-foot-wide shoulders, and a center median with left-turn lanes at each end. Traffic capacity would remain the same.

The Conservancy’s initial comments on the project, submitted in October 2006, sought detailed consideration of an alternative that would leave the historic bridge intact and construct a stand-alone pedestrian crossing alongside it. This option was quickly rejected by BOE without full analysis in the draft EIR, even though the city is favoring a similar approach for upgrading the Riverside-Zoo Drive Bridge.

In reviewing the North Spring Street Viaduct project on April 15, 2010, several members of the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission expressed anger and frustration over the compressed timeline for the project and their apparent powerlessness to alter its course. “I feel that we have our hands tied behind our backs,” lamented Commission President Richard Barron, “and we’re watching the guillotine smash [the viaduct]. It’s sad, it’s sad.”

In addition to limiting opportunities for meaningful public comment, the hastened project schedule has contributed to significant errors and omissions in the draft EIR.

It fails to acknowledge the bridge’s status as a City of Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument and, consequently, does not evaluate the project’s potential impacts on HCM eligibility. Such oversights cast serious doubt on the city’s willingness to thoroughly consider less harmful preservation alternatives to the proposed project.

After reviewing the project in May, the Conservancy’s board of directors unanimously voted to make preservation of the North Spring Street Viaduct a priority.

We have been coordinating our advocacy efforts with residents, stakeholders, and community groups on both sides of the Los Angeles River, with many attending a June 2 Board of Public Works hearing on the final EIR. With the final City Council vote anticipated in mid-June, Councilmember Ed Reyes (whose district includes the bridge) has not publicly stated his position on the project.

http://www.laconservancy.org/issues/issues_NSpringSt.php4

Facts 

Overview

Concrete arch bridge over Los Angeles River on North Spring Street in Los Angeles

Location

Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California

Status

Open to traffic

Future prospects

The city's Bureau of Engineering (BOE) is rushing to approve a project that would dramatically widen the North Spring Street Viaduct -- nearly doubling its width, stripping away all historic ornamentation, and eliminating the bridge's eligibility as a city landmark.

History

Built 1881, Replaced 1928; rehabilitated 1939, seismic upgrade 1992

Builders

- John C. Shaw
- Western Construction Co.

Design

Open-spandrel concrete arch

Dimensions

Length of largest span: 146.0 ft.
Total length: 682.1 ft.
Deck width: 39.7 ft.

Recognition

Eligible for the National Register of Historic Places

Also called

Downey Road, Later Downey Ave.

Approximate latitude, longitude

+34.07056, -118.22500   (decimal degrees)
34°04'14" N, 118°13'30" W   (degrees°minutes'seconds")

Approximate UTM coordinates

11/386964/3770656 (zone/easting/northing)

USGS topographic map

Los Angeles

Inventory numbers

CA 53C-859 (California bridge number)
BH 11022 (Bridgehunter.com ID)

Inspection (as of 04/2007)

Deck condition rating: Satisfactory (6 out of 9)
Superstructure condition rating: Good (7 out of 9)
Substructure condition rating: Good (7 out of 9)
Appraisal: Functionally obsolete
Sufficiency rating: 73.5 (out of 100)

Average daily traffic (as of 2000)

20,000

Categories 

Update Log 

• June 4, 2010: Essay added by David Kimbrough
• January 2, 2009: New photo from David Kimbrough
• December 30, 2008: Essay added by David Kimbrough
• December 24, 2008: Updated by David Kimbrough
• December 18, 2008: New photo from David Kimbrough
• November 3, 2008: New photo from David Kimbrough
• June 6, 2008: Updated by David Kimbrough
• May 11, 2008: New photos from David Kimbrough

Sources 

• David Kimbrough - kimbrough-photo [at] charter [dot] net

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