Above: View of restored span.
Above: View of original structure, from HABS HAER.
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Original Location Key Facts |
Bridge Name | Type | Road | Location | City | Crossing |
| North Park Street Bridge Span | 5 Span Through Truss | North Park Street | Kent County, MI | Grand Rapids | Grand River |
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Current Location Key Facts |
Bridge Name | Type | Road | Location | City | Crossing |
| North Park Street Bridge Span | 1 Span Through Truss | Park Path | Kent County, MI | Grand Rapids | Grand River Inlet |
How can you demolish and restore a bridge at the same time? Here is how. Bittersweet is the perfect way to define the situation present here. Consider the Sixth Street Bridge, arguably the king of truss bridges in Michigan, due to its length as well as its ornate appearance. The Sixth Street Bridge is four spans, one of those spans being shortened. Now consider the bridge shown above in the black and white photo from HABS HAER. It was five spans in length, and none were shortened. Each span was 116 feet, yielding a whopping 580 foot long bridge! I am talking about a bridge that rivals those in Pennsylvania! I try to be fair to the owners of bridges as they have to deal with the challenges of deciding what to do with these bridges, but this is ridiculous. Why not tear down the Brooklyn Bridge in New York while you are at it?! This bridge was demolished in 1991. It is not like it was in the 1970s when the significance of truss bridges had not been realized. I do not care how bad people thought this bridge was. I don't care how much in the way it was. Any more than the President of the United States might have to deal with the inconveniences of the arrangement of an ancient building like the White House, Grand Rapids citizens should have accepted any conveniences to get this bridge restored at least for pedestrian weight. Lets face it, if a bridge is still supporting itself, chances are with a sandblasting and painting it will continue to support the weight of pedestrians for decades to come. When I see the excellent condition of the restored span in the park, my belief that the original bridge could have been restored for pedestrian traffic is only solidified. Even the original floor beams are still present, something that sometimes must be replaced in a restoration due to deterioration. Anyway, I think I made my point that my regardless of what I say about the existing span, my opinion of the replacement is clear.
When the bridge was demolished, one of the spans was retained and restored here in the park. I am unsure if this was done to prevent a riot on the part of people who liked the old bridge, or if someone in the city had a shred a decency or guilt over tearing the old bridge down in them.
The only surviving, and partly broken plaque from the bridge was retained and mounted near the restored bridge along with interpretive and ceremonial plaques.
The plaque credits the New Jersey Bridge Company with building the bridge in 1903. This is a bridge company that likely built few bridges in Michigan. I am unsure but this may be the only surviving example of their work in Michigan.
If I were to find this one span on some rural road in Michigan I would be ecstatic. It is a bridge in and of itself, and an impressive one at that, which some unusual features. I will treat the structure as a whole bridge for the remainder of this article.
The span today is an eight panel pin connected through truss. The structure is 116 feet in length. Stampings all over the bridge credit the Phoenix Company with providing the steel for the bridge. This Phoenix company is related to the Phoenix Iron Company which produced the famous Phoenix Columns like those seen on the Williams Road Bridge in Pennsylvania. The bridge has a wide feeling to it, since it was built to support two lanes of traffic. Pin connected truss bridges like this are usually thought of as one-lane structures, but the truth is sometimes they were built to handle two lanes. This is the case with the Sixth Street Bridge and the Blackfriars Bridge as well. Portal bracing on the bridge is an "a-frame special" sort of deal, with a couple pieces of steel riveted on to make it look different than the standard A-frame. The shape of the a-frame is shorter looking than the standard like that seen on the Church Road Bridge likely due to the width of the bridge. V-lacing is present on vertical members, sway bracing and under the top chord. However, for whatever reason, they covered up the v-lacing under the top chord on the northern top chord. Oddly, they left the southern top chord alone. They also left the end post portions of the top chord alone. The restoration of the bridge also resulted in some other changes. The deck is narrower than the original, and there is a gap between vertical members and the deck. The railings are not original, and I although I don't like them one bit, they are better than wood or cyclone fencing, which I despise with a passion. The original lattice railings should have been reused on this bridge. Since an entire five span bridge was removed, there would have been plenty to go around. The eyebars for some of the lighter rod diagonal members have been replaced and are not original.
The bridge was painted black, which is fine, but I don't really like black since it can be very difficult to photograph. The day I visited this bridge was a strange one. For most of the day it was snowy and cloudy. By the time I got done in Ionia County and northern Kent County the snow left and it proceeded to become a clear, sunny day. Although it does not make sense, I seem to get good photos of black bridges in the winter, despite the stark contrast between the snow and the black bridge. Indeed my photos of this bridge came out spectacular. I doubt I will be lucky enough to visit this bridge again in such good conditions, so I included tons of photos for your enjoyment. You will find many wallpaper size (and worthy) images in the photo gallery. Also regarding the photographing experiences of the bridge, since there are few trees around this bridge, it may look a bit barren, but getting nice photos of the structure is quite easy which is a nice change from the normal.
