This bridge is incredibly beautiful, and it's nice to see a restoration project completed as accurately as this one was! I'm personally a fan of the "2-tone" black & silver paint scheme, where the portal bracing and upper chord/endposts are painted silver, and the remainder of the superstructure--all truss members and sway bracing--are painted black. It really makes a truss bridge stand out and get noticed. The Broadway Bridge in St. Peter, MN, is an excellent example of this paint scheme:
Although I wouldn't personally paint a smaller truss bridge Black......I think the larger "majestic" spans like this one look good in Black. I do like that they highlighted the plaque trim and lettering in Gold. I wish they would do that with the plaques on the Laughery Creek Bridge.
Waco did a great job of rehabilitating this bridge in 2010. The entire bridge was covered in a giant tent while the paint work was taking place. I just noticed yesterday that they also replaced the road deck with new concrete.
Beautiful!
Thx for the pics Scott!
The Washington Avenue bridge in Waco, TX is closed until sometime in 2010 for a complete renovation.
I spoke with a Waco official back when the bridge was still under the tent about what color they were going to paint it. It had always been silver as far back as I could remember. He said it would be painted black as that was the original color when it was built. It has a dramatic look to it since everything around it is green, blue, white etc.