Crawford Street Bridge | |
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![]() 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[1] |
History | |
Opened | 1873 |
Rebuilt | 1930, 1982 |
Statistics | |
Daily traffic | automobiles and pedestrians |
Location | |
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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,[2] it was the world's widest bridge, and listed in the 1988 Guinness Book of World Records.[3]
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.[4]
In 2000 the Rhode Island General Assembly passed legislation, at the request of then–State Representative Cicilline, Representative Paul Moura, and Representative Thomas Slater, formally changing the name of the bridge from the Crawford Street Bridge to the Robert E. Rowan, P.E. Bridge