The Jamestown Bridge (usually referred to as the Old Jamestown Bridge to avoid confusion with its replacement, the Jamestown Verrazzano Bridge) was a cantilever truss bridge that connected

Conanicut Island Conanicut Island is the second-largest island in Narragansett Bay in the American state of Rhode Island. It is connected on the east to Newport on Aquidneck Island via the Claiborne Pell Bridge, commonly known as the Newport Bridge, and on t ...

to mainland

North Kingstown North Kingstown is a town in Washington County, Rhode Island, United States, and is part of the Providence metropolitan area. The population was 27,732 in the 2020 census. North Kingstown is home to the birthplace of American portraitist Gilbe ...

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area and the seventh-least populous, with slightly fewer than 1.1 million residents as of 2020, but it ...

, spanning the West passage of

Narragansett Bay Narragansett Bay is a bay and estuary on the north side of Rhode Island Sound covering , of which is in Rhode Island. The bay forms New England's largest estuary, which functions as an expansive natural harbor and includes a small archipelago. Sm ...

. The bridge first opened to traffic in 1940, replacing ferry service as the primary connection for the town of Jamestown, situated on Conanicut Island. It was constructed for just over $3 million 1940

USD The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

, which was paid for by tolls until June 28, 1969. With a total length of 6,892 feet (2,100 m), the Jamestown Bridge was the third longest in

at the time of its destruction, ranking behind its replacement, the adjacent 7,350-foot (2,240 m) Jamestown Verrazzano Bridge, and the 11,248-foot (3,428 m)

Claiborne Pell Newport Bridge The Claiborne Pell Bridge, commonly known as the Newport Bridge, is a suspension bridge operated by the Rhode Island Turnpike and Bridge Authority that spans the East Passage of the Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island (northeastern United States). ...

connecting Conanicut Island to Aquidneck Island and Newport. The Jamestown Bridge was closed to vehicular traffic on October 8, 1992, and its main span was destroyed through a controlled demolition on April 18, 2006.

History

Navigating around

had proved troublesome since the colonial era, the first ferry operation began in 1675 introduced an alternate to the long route around

Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts ...

. Steam service in the West Passage began in 1888 and reduced travel times, but subject to weather conditions. In 1920, the first plans for the Jamestown Bridge began and it was stimulated by the Newport Ferry Company's financial troubles. In 1934, during the Great Depression, the State of Rhode Island sought funding from the United States federal government to construct bridges over both the West Passage and East Passage of the bay. The plans were well-supported and passed the Rhode Island House of Representatives by a 96-to-1 vote, and were approved by President Franklin Roosevelt. The minor opposition to the bridge's construction was quelled after the

1938 New England hurricane The 1938 New England Hurricane (also referred to as the Great New England Hurricane and the Long Island Express Hurricane) was one of the deadliest and most destructive tropical cyclones to strike Long Island, New York, and New England. The storm ...

destroyed the ferry docks and one of the ferryboats on September 21, 1938, stopping ferry service. The bridge was designed by Parsons, Klapp, Brinckerhoff and Douglass and called for a bridge with 69 spans with a total cost of $3 million. The bridge was delayed by two months, but was completed for better than $100,000 under budget. A crew of nearly 200 constructed the bridge and the work was completed without a single fatality. This claim however is contested as a fatality took place during the construction of the coffer dams on September 18, 1939. On July 27, 1940, the bridge opened for traffic and a 90 cent toll was charged on the North Kingstown side. The toll would later be reduced to 35 cents and 25 cents before being removed in 1969, following the completion of the Newport (Pell) Bridge. A formal dedication of the bridge commenced on the weekend of August 2 through August 4, 1940, with a military marine parade on the final day.

Structure

The bridge consisted of 69 spans with a large continuous

cantilever A cantilever is a rigid structural element that extends horizontally and is supported at only one end. Typically it extends from a flat vertical surface such as a wall, to which it must be firmly attached. Like other structural elements, a cant ...

Warren

truss A truss is an assembly of ''members'' such as beams, connected by ''nodes'', that creates a rigid structure. In engineering, a truss is a structure that "consists of two-force members only, where the members are organized so that the assembl ...

centerpiece. The 600 ft (183 m) main span was 135 ft (41 m) above the western portion of the Narragansett Bay. The bridge was long thought to be a danger to motorists, consisting of only two undivided lanes, and during the summer months, the eastbound lane was usually at a standstill due to vacationers traveling to Newport via the main route from the mainland. Its steep climb proved challenging for some vehicles and with no passing lanes or shoulders, hazardous conditions resulted when stalled vehicles were on the bridge. The roadway deck through the cantilevered span was an open steel-grid deck, similar to that of the Castleton Bridge just south of

Albany, New York Albany ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of New York, also the seat and largest city of Albany County. Albany is on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River, and about north of New York C ...

, or the now-demolished Sikorsky Bridge on the

Merritt Parkway The Merritt Parkway (also known locally as "The Merritt") is a limited-access parkway in Fairfield County, Connecticut, with a small section at the northern end in New Haven County. Designed for Connecticut's Gold Coast, the parkway is known ...

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its capita ...

. The deck proved to be extremely slippery when wet. After the bridge began to show structural problems with age, RIDOT began construction of the Jamestown-Verrazano Bridge in 1985. The new bridge, which opened on October 17, 1992, includes four divided lanes of traffic with shoulders.

Service

The bridge is reported to have inspired fear in motorists because of its open grates, which allowed the motorists to peer down into the Narragansett Bay about below, and because the bridge would shake in high winds. Head-on collisions on the undivided bridge were reported to be common, and the steel grid pavement was noted as "treacherous" when wet.

Demolition

The

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, mu ...

had long declared the Jamestown Bridge to be a navigation hazard and requested that the state of Rhode Island dismantle the eastern two thirds of it. The Sierra Club, an

environmental organization An environmental organization is an organization coming out of the conservation or environmental movements that seeks to protect, analyse or monitor the environment against misuse or degradation from human forces. In this sense the environmen ...

, suggested to instead turn the bridge into a

bike route Cycling infrastructure is all infrastructure cyclists are allowed to use. Bikeways include bike paths, bike lanes, cycle tracks, rail trails and, where permitted, sidewalks. Roads used by Motor vehicle, motorists are also cycling infrastructu ...

and walkway. However, the aging structure proved to be in far worse condition than previously thought, prompting officials to go ahead with removing the entire structure. On April 18, 2006, the main span of the Jamestown Bridge was brought down by Department of Transportation employee Wilfred Hernandez, using 75 pounds of

RDX RDX (abbreviation of "Research Department eXplosive") or hexogen, among other names, is an organic compound with the formula (O2N2CH2)3. It is a white solid without smell or taste, widely used as an explosive. Chemically, it is classified as a ...

explosives and 350

shaped charge A shaped charge is an explosive charge shaped to form an explosively formed penetrator (EFP) to focus the effect of the explosive's energy. Different types of shaped charges are used for various purposes such as cutting and forming metal, ini ...

TNT Trinitrotoluene (), more commonly known as TNT, more specifically 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene, and by its preferred IUPAC name 2-methyl-1,3,5-trinitrobenzene, is a chemical compound with the formula C6H2(NO2)3CH3. TNT is occasionally used as a reagen ...

charges were later used to remove the concrete piers. On May 18, 2006, crews imploded the trusses that once carried the side spans. Throughout mid-2006, workers removed the remaining support piers and low-level approach spans west of the main channel. The extreme western portion of the bridge was not demolished with the remains of the bridge during 2006, as officials planned to renovate and convert it into a fishing pier, but ultimately it was removed in 2010 when renovation and cleanup proved too costly. That last part was then demolished in the same year. The total cost for removal of the Jamestown Bridge was

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

22 million. The demolished steel superstructure was floated away for recycling, while concrete from the bridge piers was used to create

artificial reef An artificial reef is a human-created underwater structure, typically built to promote marine life in areas with a generally featureless bottom, to control erosion, block ship passage, block the use of trawling nets, or improve surfing. Many ...

s below the mouth of Narragansett Bay.

References

External links

Art In Ruins: Jamestown Bridge

Video on YouTube
{{Authority control Road bridges in Rhode Island Demolished bridges in the United States Narragansett Bay Bridges in Newport County, Rhode Island Bridges in Washington County, Rhode Island Former road bridges in the United States Former toll bridges in Rhode Island Cantilever bridges in the United States Buildings and structures in North Kingstown, Rhode Island Buildings and structures in Jamestown, Rhode Island 1940 establishments in Rhode Island 2006 disestablishments in Rhode Island Bridges completed in 1940 Buildings and structures demolished in 2006 Metal bridges in the United States Warren truss bridges in the United States