| Additional Information: | A 'site file' exists for this property. It contains additional information such as correspondence, newspaper clippings, or historical information. It is a public record and may be viewed in person at the Wisconsin Historical Society, State Historic Preservation Office.
2000- "The Port Washington Road Bridge is a four-span, filled spandrel, reinforced concrete-arch bridge. It was designed by W. C. Buetow
of the Wisconsin Highway Commission and built in 1913. The bridge is 285 feet long and 62.33 feet wide, with a 46-foot roadway.
Each arch has a 65-foot span, with a method of tying in reinforcing where the arches meet at the piers that is, according to Hess
and Frame, "unusual but structurally insignificant." The battered piers and plain spandrel panels are original. The poured concrete
parapet and tubular metal railing date from 1981. The original railing was concrete, enriched with NeoClassical Revival-inspired
panels and pedestals, topped with a hand-rail with a classical profile. The rail was accented with metal lamp posts bearing opaque
glass globes. This railing was replaced in 1935 and again in 1981. The fact that the Port Washington Road Bridge was the first
large, concrete-arch bridge designed by the Wisconsin Highway Commission lends it some potential for historical significance.
However, the loss of the original railing has compromised the bridge's integrity such that it no longer has the appearance of an early
twentieth-century bridge and cannot convey its history as the first large, concrete-arch bridge the Wisconsin Highway Commission
designed.
Hess and Frame's survey of stone-arch and concrete-arch bridges in Wisconsin evaluated 41 pre-1945 concrete-arch bridges,
reviewing those with a minimum arch-span of 50 feet or a total length of 70 feet. The Port Washington Road Bridge was included
in the survey, but determined ineligible due to its poor integrity. The North Avenue Viaduct (P-40-808) in Milwaukee, built in 1921,
is the only concrete-arch bridge surveyed by Hess and Frame that was found eligible despite poor design integrity. It is a large and
complex bridge and served an important role as a major river crossing. In contrast, the Port Washington Road Bridge is a relatively
simple structure and is one of several bridges that cross the Milwaukee River in the city of Glendale."
-"Milwaukee, 7.5'", WisDOT 2570-07-00/70, Prepared by Elizabeth L. Miller. (2000).
2019 - Not extant (Heritage Research, Ltd.). Bridge has been replaced. |
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