Shoreham Hill Bridge, Road bridge in Washington, D.C., US

Shoreham Hill Bridge is a stone-faced concrete arch bridge carrying the Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway over Rock Creek in Washington, D.C. It has a single wide semicircular opening, a flat roadway on top, and mica schist facing from Maryland quarries with some granite details.

The first bridge here was put up in 1929 using recycled steel trusses from the Georgetown Aqueduct Bridge, but its plain look and narrow design drew complaints. It was replaced by the current stone-faced structure in 1938, and the roadway was repaired again in 1987.

The bridge sits within a park setting where the stone facing was chosen to blend with the natural Rock Creek valley, a visible reminder of how Washington’s parkways were shaped for leisure driving and walking. Today, it marks a quieter corner where people on foot or in cars pass from one wooded bank to the other without the feel of a city crossing.

You can walk across the bridge on its sidewalk while cars use the roadway, making it easy to stop and look down at the creek. Be aware that the traffic is steady, so staying on the pedestrian side helps you move safely while taking in the surroundings.

When the current structure was built, workers demolished one half of the old bridge at a time so that traffic could keep moving on the other half. The original steel version used parts taken from an older aqueduct bridge that once carried canal boats.