The Talbot Avenue bridge in Montgomery County,

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

, was a historic one-lane metal girder bridge that connected the neighborhood of

Lyttonsville Lyttonsville is a mostly residential neighborhood of Silver Spring, Maryland. Established in the 1850s, it is among the oldest neighborhoods in Montgomery County, Maryland, Montgomery County and is a notable example of a community created by free ...

to downtown Silver Spring. Built in 1918 and dismantled in 2019, the bridge had historic value as a connection from an

antebellum Antebellum, Latin for "before war", may refer to: United States history * Antebellum South, the pre-American Civil War period in the Southern United States ** Antebellum Georgia ** Antebellum South Carolina ** Antebellum Virginia * Antebellum ar ...

community founded by a free Black laborer to neighborhoods where for decades Black people were allowed to work, but not live. As of 2022, its main span is in storage with plans to display it along the Georgetown Branch Trail.

History

The bridge replaced an earlier span across the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's double-track

Metropolitan Branch Metropolitan may refer to: * Metropolitan area, a region consisting of a densely populated urban core and its less-populated surrounding territories * Metropolitan borough, a form of local government district in England * Metropolitan county, a typ ...

line, which had opened in 1873. Its primary span used components of a dismantled

railroad turntable In rail terminology, a railway turntable or wheelhouse is a device for turning railway rolling stock, usually locomotives, so that they can be moved back in the direction from which they came. Naturally, it is especially used in areas where ec ...

. The structure was 106 feet long and 14.5 feet wide, from timber curb to curb and an out-to-out width of 18 feet. The greater structure consisted of a through-plate girder in the center span, rolled girders in the end spans, timber floor beams, a wood plank deck and a timber railing. A new deck was added in 1986. The bridge connected Hanover Street and Lanier Drive. A 1993 inspection report indicated the structure was in fair to poor condition with cracking, corrosion and section loss. The wood and steel on the bridge had been in disrepair, making it hard to keep intact. In 2016, preservationists protested plans to demolish the structure to make way for the planned light rail Purple Line. In May 2017, the bridge was closed to vehicles after a safety inspection determined it to be unsafe. The bridge closed in June 2019, and was dismantled later that year. Its main span was preserved and stored, with plans to place it on public display along the Georgetown Branch Trail. It will be replaced by a new two-lane bridge, which is currently under construction. It will carry the Georgetown Branch Trail extension of the

Capital Crescent Trail The Capital Crescent Trail (CCT) is a , shared-use rail trail that runs from Georgetown in Washington, D.C., to Bethesda, Maryland. An extension of the trail from Bethesda to Silver Spring along a route formerly known as the Georgetown Branch ...

to Silver Spring. In February 2019, the bridge was recorded as part of the

Historic American Engineering Record Heritage Documentation Programs (HDP) is a division of the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) responsible for administering the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), and Historic American Landscapes ...

. The project historian wrote, "The bridge also is significant for its social history and as a cultural landscape element. The tracks beneath the bridge formed a dividing line separating segregated suburban communities. African Americans living west of the bridge in Lyttonsville relied on the structure as a vital link to jobs, shopping, and recreational opportunities unavailable in their community. People east of the bridge lived in what was historically a sundown suburb: a place where African Americans could not buy or rent homes and where Jim Crow segregation was rigidly enforced."

References

External links

Talbot Avenue: a bridge in black and white

BridgeHunter - Talbot Avenue Railroad Overpass
* UglyBridges.com
Talbot Avenue bridge
African-American history of Montgomery County, Maryland Bridges in Montgomery County, Maryland Downtown Silver Spring, Maryland History of Maryland Road bridges in Maryland {{Maryland-bridge-struct-stub