The Memorial Bridge is a two-lane, bridge spanning the

Roanoke River The Roanoke River ( ) runs long through southern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina in the United States. A major river of the southeastern United States, it drains a largely rural area of the coastal plain from the eastern edge of the ...

along

U.S. Route 11 U.S. Route 11 or U.S. Highway 11 (US 11) is a major north–south United States Numbered Highway extending across the eastern U.S. The southern terminus of the route is at US 90 in Bayou Sauvage National Wildlife Refu ...

(Memorial Avenue) in Roanoke,

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

. The bridge serves as a connection between the southwestern areas of the city (including the

Grandin Village The Grandin Road Commercial Historic District, also referred to as Grandin Village, is a historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places located in the Raleigh Court, Roanoke, Virginia, Raleigh Court neighborhood of the ind ...

area) with central Roanoke. Built by contractor W.W. Boxley, the bridge consists of five spans, with construction commencing in summer 1925. The bridge officially opened to traffic on May 6, 1926, at a final cost of $282,750. Although officially open to traffic for over four months, its official dedication occurred on August 30 with U.S. Representative Clifton Woodrum in attendance. The delay in its dedication was attributed to delays involving the creation of the bronze, dedication plaques. It is officially dedicated to Roanoke's veterans of

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. The bridge features five plaques, with their contents determined by the Roanoke City Council. Four of them feature quotations from notable historic figures:

Patrick Henry Patrick Henry (May 29, 1736 ld Style and New Style dates, O.S. May 18, 1736une 6, 1799) was an American politician, planter and orator who declared to the Virginia Conventions, Second Virginia Convention (1775): "Give me liberty or give m ...

Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), also known as Teddy or T.R., was the 26th president of the United States, serving from 1901 to 1909. Roosevelt previously was involved in New York (state), New York politics, incl ...

Stonewall Jackson Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson (January 21, 1824 – May 10, 1863) was a Confederate general and military officer who served during the American Civil War. He played a prominent role in nearly all military engagements in the eastern the ...

and

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (, 1743July 4, 1826) was an American Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was the primary author of the United States Declaration of Indepe ...

; with the fifth containing the names of all the soldiers from Roanoke who died in World War I. Although dedicated to the veterans who fought in World War I, many did not attend the dedication ceremony due to its not being originally conceived as a monument to former servicemen. The bridge was officially rededicated on November 11, 1991, sixty-five years after its original dedication. Due to its deteriorating state as a result of corrosion from salt used for

deicing De-icing is the process of removing snow, ice or frost from a surface. Anti-icing is the application of chemicals that not only de-ice but also remain on a surface and continue to delay the reformation of ice for a certain period of time, or pr ...

in the winter, in April 2002 a major restoration of the span commenced. Costing $1.17 million and completed by spring 2003, the restoration included the replacement of corroded elements, removal of the original Roanoke Street Railway Company

streetcar A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some include s ...

tracks from the roadbed and a resurfacing of the pavement. Additionally, the restoration project incorporated

traffic calming Traffic calming uses physical design and other measures to improve safety for motorists, car drivers, pedestrians and bicycle-friendly, cyclists. It has become a tool to combat speeding and other unsafe behaviours of drivers. It aims to encour ...

principles in reducing the number of vehicular travel lanes from four to two. In addition to the removal of a pair of lanes, both a

median The median of a set of numbers is the value separating the higher half from the lower half of a Sample (statistics), data sample, a statistical population, population, or a probability distribution. For a data set, it may be thought of as the “ ...

and two

bike lanes Bike lanes (US) or cycle lanes (UK) are types of bikeways (cycleways) with lanes on the roadway for cyclists only. In the United Kingdom, an on-road cycle-lane can be firmly restricted to cycles (marked with a solid white line, entry by motor ...

were incorporated onto the bridge.

References

{{Crossings navbox , structure = Crossings , place =

, bridge = Memorial Bridge , bridge signs = , upstream = Wasena Bridge , upstream signs = , downstream = Peters Creek Road Extension Bridge , downstream signs = Bridges completed in 1926 Transportation in Roanoke, Virginia U.S. Route 11 Buildings and structures in Roanoke, Virginia Monuments and memorials in Virginia Road bridges in Virginia 1926 establishments in Virginia Bridges of the United States Numbered Highway System Arch bridges in the United States

See also

References