The Crawford Street Bridge

The Crawford Street Bridge. taken from "The Civic and Architectural Development of Providence" by John Hutchin Cady. , Market Square and the Weybossett Bridge became the head of navigation in the Old Harbor with the construction of a fixed type bridge in 1816. Ships docked along the northern portion of South Water Street (now Memorial Park) and were serviced from a row of warehouses and gangways., An expanding market, a proliferation of horse-drawn trolley lines, and a connecting railroad line between Union Station and India Point prompted the construction of the Crawford Street Bridge in 1873. The bridge was 600 feet in width and and provided by a 60 by 400 foot span for the new market location. Upon its completion in 1875, Crawford Street Bridge became the new head of navigation on the Providence River., The market continued here for more than 50 years when, in anticipation of plans to reconstruct the bridge in 1930, the Providence Produce Market was constructed in 1927 between the railroad tracks and Promenade Street. By 1933, a new Providence County Courthouse climbed the hill to Benefit Street and overlooked a park and bridge deck with vehicular traffic and parking at its base. The market, the trains, and the "Old Brick Row" of warehouses had vanished., The bridge remained unchanged for the next 60 years until the River Relocation Project came along and ripped up the decking, straightened out the roadways, and rolled out a riverfront park and open water.