Main Street Bridge; Downtown Columbus, Ohio

This unique inclined-arch bridge is the first of its kind in North America and alludes to Columbus’ long tradition of arches in the public realm.

Key Details:

The Main Street Bridge was constructed as a replacement for the original Art Deco Main Street Bridge built in 1937.  The bridge was deemed unsafe and a replacement was viewed as an necessary step to enhance safety and maintain mobility as well as an opportunity to create a monumental addition to the skyline.  The original concept for the arch was conceived by Spiro Pollalis, a Harvard professor who was hired by the City of Columbus to develop a concept.  A single-rib inclined arch bridge was selected and is believed to be the first bridge with this structure type in North America and one of only a few international examples.

The bridge consists of two bridge decks which straddle the inclined arch structure.  The south deck included three traffic lanes, two eastbound and one westbound, and a small sidewalk on the south edge.  The north deck is 18′ wide and is exclusively for bike and pedestrian traffic.  It acts almost like a massive front porch for Downtown.

If You Go:

The Main Street Bridge provides an intriguing, comfortable and safe connection between the newly renovated Bicentennial Park and COSI.  It offers incredible places to view the Columbus skyline and riverfront with some limited seating and viewing binoculars.  On-street parking is available close-by and the bridge itself is part of the Scioto Trail.

Sources:

http://www.pollalis.com/projects.htm

http://www.newbroadwaybridge.org/images/Arched%20Bridges/MAIN-ST-BRIDGE-Columbus-OH.pdf

This work by Matt is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.