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Colonial Parkway - Lafayette Street Bridge

Williamsburg, Virginia

Photos 

South Elevation Of C & O Railroad Underpass Portion Of Bridge

Photo taken for the Historic American Engineering Record

View photos at Library of Congress

BH Photo #312635

Map 

Street View 

Description 

The C&O Railroad Underpass represents a typical 1930s brick-faced arch reinforced concrete bridge constructed on the Colonial Parkway. Charles Peterson based his design of this bridge on the 1860 brick arch viaduct of the Central of Georgia Railway in Savannah, Georgia. While using stylistic elements of colonial architecture such as arches and Flemish and English bond brickwork, this bridge also reflects the effort on the part of the designers to have the underpass complement the natural environment of the Tidewater area through its subdued exterior decorations and color as well as its relatively short physical dimensions.

-- Historic American Engineering Record

Facts 

Overview
Pair of arch bridges over Colonial Parkway on Lafayette Street/C&O Railroad in Williamsburg
Location
Williamsburg, Virginia
Status
Open to traffic above and below
History
Built 1936
Builders
- C.Y. Thomason Co. of Greenwood, South Carolina
- Charles E. Peterson
Railroads
- CSX Railroad (CSX)
- Chesapeake & Ohio Railway (C&O; CO)
Design
Closed-spandrel arch with brick facing
Dimensions
Length of largest span: 50.9 ft.
Total length: 142.1 ft.
Approximate latitude, longitude
+37.27532, -76.69903   (decimal degrees)
37°16'31" N, 76°41'57" W   (degrees°minutes'seconds")
Approximate UTM coordinates
18/349367/4126767 (zone/easting/northing)
Quadrangle map:
Williamsburg
Average daily traffic (as of 1985)
10,140
Inventory numbers
VA 22333 (Virginia bridge number)
BH 33793 (Bridgehunter.com ID)
Inspection report (as of March 1989)
Overall condition: Good
Superstructure condition rating: Good (7 out of 9)
Substructure condition rating: Good (7 out of 9)
Deck condition rating: Very Good (8 out of 9)
Sufficiency rating: 59.2 (out of 100)
View more at BridgeReports.com

Categories 

Arch (12,189)
Built 1936 (1,160)
Built during 1930s (11,773)
C.Y. Thomason Co. (2)
CSX Railroad (1,669)
Charles E. Peterson (1)
Chesapeake & Ohio Railway (190)
Closed-spandrel arch (4,042)
Colonial Parkway (12)
Deck arch (11,425)
 Have street view (27,081)
Open (39,994)
Owned by National Park Service (467)
Owned by federal government (1,228)
Railroad (15,613)
Span length 50-75 feet (10,107)
Total length 125-175 feet (5,942)
Virginia (1,238)
Williamsburg, Virginia (11)

Update Log 

  • March 25, 2020: New photo from Geoff Hubbs
  • January 7, 2015: HAER photos posted by Dave King
  • May 4, 2010: Updated by James Baughn: Removed duplicate listings

Sources 

  • Nathan Holth
  • HAER VA-48-C - Colonial Parkway, C&O Railroad Underpass, Milepost 12.54 of Colonial Parkway, Yorktown, York County, VA
  • Geoff Hubbs
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Comments 

Lafayette Street Bridge
Posted May 4, 2010, by Nathan Holth (form3 [at] historicbridges [dot] org)

This is an interesting pair of bridges. There are additional similar but smaller bridges elsewhere over this parkway.