Edmund Pettus Bridge, bridge over the Alabama River in Selma, Alabama, United States
The Edmund Pettus Bridge is a steel through-arch bridge carrying U.S. Route 80 Business over the Alabama River at Selma. Its central steel span measures 250 feet (76 m), and ten smaller concrete spans, nine of them large arches, support the roadway on the east side. Because Selma sits on a bluff, the west end is higher, and the bridge deck stands 100 feet (30 m) above the river at midspan.
On March 7, 1965, law enforcement officers attacked 600 demonstrators attempting to march from here to Montgomery, an event remembered as Bloody Sunday. The bridge opened in 1940 and served only traffic for nearly 26 years before becoming a symbol of the fight for voting rights.
Named after a Confederate general, the structure carries a name that remains contested, while the roadway itself has become a place of remembrance for civil rights activism. Each March, thousands of people walk across the pavement to commemorate the events of 1965.
Visitors can cross the bridge on foot or by car and view the river below, with pedestrians walking along narrow areas beside the roadway. The best time to visit is morning or late afternoon when light shows the steel structure well.
The steel structure appears on the national register while remaining an active roadway, which is rare for monuments of this kind. Vehicles roll directly over the same surface where the 1965 confrontation took place.
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