Recent Rhode Island Comments

This bridge has been modified by having its open deck covered with a concrete "trough" fully balasted deck. Track 2 on this bridge was rebuilt in May, 2013 and a quick look around gives the impression that the struture is in very good conditon.

....My daughter-in-law snapped this beautiful picture of the Mt.Hope Bridge (with me under it) yesterday in the Sun....

Wayne, thank you very much for that pretty, pretty picture of the Mt.Hope Bridge. I paint (not professionally), and I'm painting it from your angle but at night though. So I'm using your photograph as a focal point. Thank you, I will post a picture of the painting afterward. I remember playing under that bridge while my sisters gathered mussels, over 45 years ago......

I just added a video from a news broadcast of the implosion of this bridge. I don't think the demolition of this beautiful landmark bridge was anything to cheer about like the people did on this video. The new bridge is the mother of all Ugly Concrete Eyesore Bridges. When I think of UCEB I think of the new Jamestown Bridge. This bridge like many others held very fond memories for me as it was a part of the many trips I took to Cape Cod with my grandmother as a child.

Rhode Island is like Pennsylvania. It has little interest in preserving historic steel bridges.... No evidence to date.

A very hard-headed state not given to appreciate the finer things...

---SWL

I normally don't change main bridge names but everybody including the locals called this the Jamestown Bridge and then the Old Jamestown Bridge.

Sounds like a real possibility Matthew! And if that is the case, then likely those nice cut stone abutments are gone as well.

I guess they can fool most of the people..........

I have a theory in mind--I've noticed that the NBI now calls it a steel stringer, rather than a steel truss. Also, as measured from Google Earth, the deck width is now 24 feet between the trusses, where it used to be 18. It looks as if the flooring system was lost, along with the historic integrity. The trusses were probably kept for decorational purposes.

Kinda what I was thinking Craig.....how can a bridge be lost in 1996.......and still show on Street View? (which I'm pretty sure was not even thought of then).......I'd like to think it might (crosses fingers) still be there.

Bridge was extant on the date crossed by the Google photo crew.

I am accustomed to visiting through truss bridges and having clearance signs placed on top of plaques by agencies who could care less about historic bridges. However I find it strange that a historical society would plaster their sign right on top of the plaque. Dean and Westbrook plaques are among the most unusual and beautiful bridge plaques ever encountered. They should not be covered up!

Interpretive signage that identifies a historic bridge is important, but it is clear that such a sign could have been placed someplace more tasteful.

James,

Thanks for visiting these bridges and posting the photos! Good to know the truss bridge is high and dry, it really is a spectacular bridge.

Nathan,

I checked. That truss bridge is fine. I drove across it,took pics, posted them, everything. The messed up bridge is Laurel Ave. Built around 1990. There is a mill next to it where a wall of it has completely collapsed. Give me an e-mail address and i'll send it to you.

That doesn;t look like the bridge that they showed on the news. It looks like a 70's steel stringer (UCEB style). I don;t have a lot of road access...all bridges are basically shut down, at least the good historic ones. I have to meet with bosses, but I did get a railroad bridge. I'll try to get more.

James,

Let us all know what you find and post any photos you get!

I hope the bridge in Coventry that is about to collapse isn't the Phoenix column truss bridge: http://www.bridgehunter.com/ri/kent/8420/ since that would be a devastating loss. Hopefully you can check on this bridge.

Nathan,

I travel a lot...especially to disaster sites. I am in Warwick, RI right now for work. The flooding here is crazy. There is a bridge in Coventry that the collapse is imminent, but I can't find out which one it is. They have I-95 shut down in areas, and traffic is a nightmare..I hope to get some of these bridges while I am here if I have the chance...

Looks like a Dean and Westbrook Phoenix Column bridge to me.

With the flooding currently in progress, this bridge can be seen on television with water rushing around it and over its deck.

One of the few truss bridges in this little state, and they still can't find a way to preserve it. This bridge will be demolished: http://www.wpri.com/dpp/news/local_wpri_west_street_bridge_in_westerly_to_be_demolished_20090805_dp

With the exception of the ugly galvanized ARMCO railing, this is a beautiful pony truss. If they keep it for pedestrian use only, then they could remove it and show the decorative railing better.

This bridge has been closed to vehicular traffic per the RIDOT for about 2 months as of 5/2009. The neighborhood is lobbying RIDOT and the town to find a way to keep it open to pedestrian traffic at minimum and to remove the unsightly "work area" closure treatment recently placed by RIDOT.

This bridge was replaced with a modern concrete structure and was imploded either in 2004 or 2005....

This bridge replaced a ferry between Newport and Jamestown, RI. I have many memories of the ferry, including more than once rounding the bend in Jamestown trying to catch a certain ferry and seeing it pulling out of the slip!

In 2001 beautiful lights were placed on the spans for nightime illumination. My daughter once told me that the arches of the Roman Baths were as high as the arches in the uprights of this bridge.

Great Story! Many people read this site and you woudn't know it...but a story like yours is a great one.

I live near this bridge, actually about 30 seconds from where the photo was taken. I love this bridge. When the state was replacing the cabling in 2000 they announced that the decorative lights were not going to be replaced. I and many others wrote letters to newspapers, historic preservation agencies, and government agencies.

We were successful in having new lights installed. The tradition had been that the lights were lit only on national holidays. When I came back from NYC in October 2001 (I had been working the Red Cross response to 9/11) the lights were on at night and have been ever since.

Those lights lifted my spirit that night and have ever since!