Nashville's Pedestrian Bridge

by Lisa Wooten

Title

Nashville's Pedestrian Bridge

Artist

Lisa Wooten

Medium

Photograph - Photographs

Description

Featured:Lady Photographers and Artists 3/23/2018

The John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge (previously called the Shelby Street Bridge or Shelby Avenue Bridge) is a truss bridge that spans the Cumberland River in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. The bridge spans 960 m (3,150 ft)[1] and is one of the longest pedestrian bridges in the world.]
John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge in the 1920s
The John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge was originally known as the Sparkman Street Bridge and was built one block south of Broadway, connecting Sparkman Street and Shelby Avenue.[2] The bridge was constructed at a cost of about $475,000. Another bridge called the Jefferson Street Bridge which was virtually identical to it was built at the same time. The Jefferson Street Bridge was opened a year after the Sparkman Street Bridge. The substructures of the bridges were light grey concrete, and the superstructures were made of steel that had been painted black.
The bridge was the first in North America to have concrete arched trusses.
The bridge was designed and construction was supervised by Howard M. Jones, the chief office engineer of the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway. The original architectural drawings as approved by Jones are archived at the Metro Transportation Offices.
In 1998 the John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge was admitted to the National Register of Historic Places, due mainly to the unique truss design. Both the John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge and the Jefferson Street Bridge were considered. The Jefferson Street Bridge was rejected because of its similarity to the John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge and the fact that the John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge was in better condition. The Jefferson Street Bridge was demolished in 1990 to make way for a new bridge that could handle more traffic.
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County.[6] It is located on the Cumberland River in the north central part of the state. The city is a center for the music, healthcare, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and home to numerous colleges and universities. It is known as a center of the country music industry, earning it the nickname "Music City, U.S.A."[7]
Since 1963, Nashville has had a consolidated city-county government which includes six smaller municipalities in a two-tier system. Nashville is governed by a mayor, vice-mayor, and 40-member Metropolitan Council. Thirty-five of the members are elected from single-member districts; five are elected at-large. Reflecting the city's position in state government, Nashville is home to the Tennessee Supreme Court's courthouse for Middle Tennessee. According to 2015 estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau, the total consolidated city-county population stood at 678,889.[3] The "balance" population, which excludes semi-independent municipalities within Nashville, was 654,610.[5] The 2015 population of the entire 13-county Nashville metropolitan area was 1,830,345, making it the largest metropolitan statistical area in the state.[4] The 2015 population of the Nashville-Davidson–Murfreesboro–Columbia combined statistical area, a larger trade area, was 1,951,644.[8]
Main articles: History of Nashville, Tennessee and Timeline of Nashville, Tennessee
The town of Nashville was founded by James Robertson, John Donelson, and a party of Overmountain Men in 1779, near the original Cumberland settlement of Fort Nashborough. It was named for Francis Nash, the American Revolutionary War hero. Nashville quickly grew because of its strategic location, accessibility as a port on the Cumberland River, a tributary of the Ohio River; and its later status as a major railroad center. By 1800, the city had 345 residents, including 136 African American slaves and 14 free blacks.[9] In 1806, Nashville was incorporated as a city and became the county seat of Davidson County, Tennessee. In 1843, the city was named the permanent capital of the state of Tennessee.
Nashville riverfront shortly after the American Civil War
By 1860, when the first rumblings of secession began to be heard across the South, antebellum Nashville was a prosperous city. The city's significance as a shipping port made it a desirable prize as a means of controlling important river and railroad transportation routes. In February 1862, Nashville became the first state capital to fall to Union troops. The state was occupied by Union troops for the duration of the war. The Battle of Nashville (December 15–16, 1864) was a significant Union victory and perhaps the most decisive tactical victory gained by either side in the war; it was also the war's final major military action, which afterward became almost entirely a war of attrition consisting largely of guerrilla raids and small skirmishes, with the Confederate forces in the Deep South almost constantly in retreat.
Within a few years after the Civil War, the Nashville chapter of the Ku Klux Klan was founded by Confederate veteran John W. Morton.[10] Meanwhile, the city had reclaimed its important shipping and trading position and developed a solid manufacturing base. The post–Civil War years of the late 19th century brought new prosperity to Nashville and Davidson County. These healthy economic times left the city with a legacy of grand classical-style buildings, which can still be seen around the downtown area. Wikipedia

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April 19th, 2017

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