The Monroe Street Bridge is a

deck arch bridge An arch bridge is a bridge with abutments at each end shaped as a curved arch. Arch bridges work by transferring the weight of the bridge and its loads partially into a horizontal thrust restrained by the abutments at either side. A viaduct ( ...

in the northwestern

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

that spans the

Spokane River The Spokane River is a tributary of the Columbia River, approximately long, in northern Idaho and eastern Washington in the United States. It drains a low mountainous area east of the Columbia, passing through the Spokane Valley and the city of ...

Spokane, Washington Spokane ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It is in eastern Washington, along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south of the Canada ...

. It was built in 1911 by the city of Spokane, and was designed by city engineer John Chester Ralston, assisted in construction supervision by Morton Macartney (and by assistant engineers J. F. Greene and P.F. Kennedy) with ornamentation provided by the firm of

Kirtland Kelsey Cutter Kirtland Kelsey Cutter (August 20, 1860 – September 26, 1939) was a 20th-century architect in the Pacific Northwest and California. He was born in East Rockport, Ohio, the great-grandson of Jared Potter Kirtland. He studied painting and illu ...

and Karl G. Malmgren as part of

Cutter & Malmgren Cutter & Malmgren was an architectural firm of Kirtland K. Cutter and Karl G. Malmgren in Spokane, Washington that existed from c.1889 to 1917. The firm designed multiple buildings that are listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places ...

.United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination Form https://npgallery.nps.gov/pdfhost/docs/NRHP/Text/76001920.pdf At completion, it was the largest concrete arch bridge in the U.S. and the third longest in the world. After more than ninety years of service, it was closed in January 2003 for restoration and reopened in September 2005.

History

The current bridge of 1911 is the third in this location. The first, a rather rickety wooden structure, was built in 1889. It was closed for a time due to arguments in the city over rights of passage and ownership, and burned down on July 22, 1890. The second was a steel bridge that opened June 27, 1892. It vibrated badly and had a noticeable dip in the center. On August 28, 1905 consultant from the

Good Roads Movement The Good Roads Movement occurred in the United States between the late 1870s and the 1920s. It was the rural dimension of the Progressive movement. A key player was the United States Post Office Department. Once a commitment was made for Rural F ...

considered the bridge unsafe. The design of the third bridge was largely copied from the Rocky River Bridge in

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

, but was built one foot (0.3 m) longer to make it the largest concrete arch in the U.S. at the time. In turn, the Rocky River Bridge was modeled after the

Walnut Lane Bridge The Walnut Lane Bridge is a concrete arch bridge located in Northwest Philadelphia that connects the Germantown and Roxborough neighborhoods across the Wissahickon Creek in Fairmount Park. While drivers may cross the bridge too quickly to noti ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, which was modeled after the

Adolphe Bridge The Adolphe Bridge ( lb, Adolphe-Bréck, french: Pont Adolphe, german: Adolphe-Brücke) is a double-decked arch bridge in Luxembourg City, in southern Luxembourg. The bridge provides a one-way route for road traffic across the Pétrusse, from ...

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

. The Monroe Street bridge was designed with ornamental features such as bison skulls, covered pavilions, and a chain-link railing motif. The bison skull was an inspiration of P. C. Shine, who had found it in

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

Drumheller Drumheller is a town on the Red Deer River in the badlands of Central Alberta, east-central Alberta, Canada. It is northeast of Calgary and south of Stettler, Alberta, Stettler. The Drumheller portion of the Red Deer River valley, often ref ...

in the early 1900s. Located just west of

the Falls The Falls may refer to: * ''The Falls'' (Oates novel), 2004 novel by Joyce Carol Oates * ''The Falls'' (Rankin novel), 2001 crime novel by Ian Rankin * The Falls (mall), an open-air shopping mall in Kendall, Florida * The Falls, Nova Scotia, a ...

, the bridge runs due north-south and opened on November 23, 1911.

20th century modernization

The bridge underwent changes in 1925 and in 1934, and submitted to the modernization of Spokane. The pavilion lamps were converted to

electric lighting An electric light, lamp, or light bulb is an electrical component that produces light. It is the most common form of artificial lighting. Lamps usually have a base made of ceramic, metal, glass, or plastic, which secures the lamp in the soc ...

in 1925, and the electric car railways were removed from the bridge in 1934. Approaching 65 years of service in 1976, the bridge was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

21st century restoration

By the 1990s, the bridge had deteriorated to the point where rebuilding it was necessary. On January 6th 2003, the bridge was closed for restoration, dismantled down to the central arch, and rebuilt faithfully to its original appearance. The bridge was reopened in 2005 on September 17, with new railings and concrete separating the walkways from the road.

Suicides

The Monroe Street Bridge has a local reputation as being a

suicide bridge A suicide bridge is a bridge used frequently by people to end their lives, most typically by jumping off and into the water or ground below. A fall from the height of a tall bridge into water may be fatal, although some people have survived jump ...

. According to the Spokane County Medical Examiners Office, from 2006 to 2018 there was an average of 2.4 deaths per year on the bridge and nine out of 13 witnessed or videotaped incidents of bridge jumper suicides on the Spokane River were on the Monroe Street Bridge. With a bridge height from the deck floor to water of 135 feet and accounting for the air resistance drag on the human body in the 1.5 second free fall, the impact velocity at the waters surface is approximately 57.2 miles per hour which almost always causes traumatic injuries and jumpers either die of their injuries, drowning,

hypothermia Hypothermia is defined as a body core temperature below in humans. Symptoms depend on the temperature. In mild hypothermia, there is shivering and mental confusion. In moderate hypothermia, shivering stops and confusion increases. In severe h ...

or a combination of these. The Spokane Police Department receives an average of 20 calls about suicidal individuals a year on the Monroe Street Bridge and despite this, there is currently (as of August 2020) no formal measures in place to try to discourage or prevent people from jumping off the bridge. The city created a Suicide Prevention Task Force in 2018 and has discussed installing safety barriers, a telephone that connects to a suicide prevention hotline on the bridge, and patrolling the bridge. Although they are often removed, members of the community sometimes place suicide prevention signage and messages of hope on the deck fence railings to make people think again about their actions and dissuade potential jumpers. Concerned citizens have petitioned local officials for permanent signage.

Gallery

File:MonroeStreetBridge1889.PNG, Monroe Street Bridge in 1889 File:MonroeStreetBridge1890s.PNG, Monroe Street Bridge in 1890s File:Construction of the Monroe Street Bridge, Spokane, Washington, September 14, 1909 (WASTATE 261).jpeg, Monroe Street Bridge on September 14, 1909 File:MonroeStreetBridgeNew.PNG, Monroe Street Bridge in 1911 shortly after completion

References

External links

Monroe Street Bridge
- City-County of Spokane Historic Preservation Office *