Pennsylvania Avenue Bridge, Former bridge in Washington, DC, US

Pennsylvania Avenue Bridge was a steel truss roadway crossing over the Anacostia River in Washington, DC, built in 1890 and removed around 1939. Its dark-painted metal framework sat on stone piers, with a narrow deck made of oak planks that carried vehicles and walkers over multiple railway tracks below.

The crossing was built in 1890 after years of pressure from an East Washington citizens’ group that wanted a direct link over the Anacostia River. It replaced an earlier bridge from 1815 that had stood slightly downstream, and it was torn down around 1939 when the current John Philip Sousa Bridge took its place.

Locally, the bridge was part of a push by residents east of the river to shorten their trips into the city center, since the crossing connected two halves of Pennsylvania Avenue that had been separated for decades. A watchman’s hut and a wooden fence along the first city-side spans showed how much attention was paid to keeping walkers apart from carriage traffic on the narrow deck.

The bridge is gone, so if you visit the riverbank today, use the nearby John Philip Sousa Bridge to get your bearings and see where the old crossing stood. On that replacement bridge, pedestrian walkways and bike lanes give a safe place to stop and look at the water and the rail lines below.

On the northwestern approach, the iron trusses were placed above the deck for the first two spans so that trains of the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad could pass freely underneath. Everywhere else on the bridge, the trusses hung below the roadway, which made the structure look different depending on which end you approached.