Crawford Street Bridge (Providence, Rhode Island)
Crawford Street Bridge | |
|---|---|
Crawford Street Bridge in 2019 | |
| Coordinates | 41°49′27″N 71°24′28″W / 41.8242°N 71.4079°W |
| Crosses | Providence River |
| Locale | Providence, Rhode Island |
| Official name | Robert E. Rowan, P.E. Bridge |
| History | |
| Opened | 1873 |
| Rebuilt | 1930, 1982 |
| Statistics | |
| Daily traffic | automobiles and pedestrians |
| Location | |
The Crawford Street Bridge was a concrete and steel bridge over the Providence River in downtown Providence, Rhode Island. It was originally built from 1873 to 1904 and then rebuilt starting in 1930. Composed of a set of interconnected bridges that span the river, it had a total area of over 3 acres (1.2 hectares) and covered nearly a quarter of a mile of the river. At 1,147 feet (350 m) wide, it was the world's widest bridge, and listed in the 1988 Guinness Book of World Records.
As part of a downtown redevelopment project, the massive bridge was substantially demolished in 1982, replaced with several narrower bridges for individual streets and exposing the Providence River to create a more pedestrian-friendly cityscape.