16th Street Bridge, Concrete bridge on 16th Street Northwest, Washington D.C.
16th Street Bridge is a concrete bridge in Washington, D.C. that carries traffic across Piney Branch Parkway with five lanes spanning the valley below. The structure features two parallel arches connected by steel beams, with sidewalks running along both the eastern and western sides.
The bridge was built between 1906 and 1910 and featured the first parabolic concrete arch design ever constructed in the United States. Architect Jay Johnson Morrow designed this engineering breakthrough that shaped early 1900s construction methods.
The bridge connects four distinct neighborhoods: Sixteenth Street Heights, Crestwood, Columbia Heights, and Mount Pleasant, forming a central transportation corridor.
The bridge is fully accessible for cars and pedestrians with three northbound lanes and two southbound lanes accommodating regular traffic. You can walk across on either side and see the valley and natural landscape below.
The concrete contains crushed blue diorite, a natural stone that gives the surface a distinctive grainy texture visible up close. This unusual material choice makes the bridge stand out from other structures built during that era.
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