An Artistic Bridge

An Artistic Bridge. Mount Hope Bridge. , The Mount Hoge Bridge was immediately heralded as a triumph of engineering and remarkably beautiful structure. Steinman had began with an inherently graceful bridge form and then given special attention in the artistic design of the entire project. Theodore E. Blake, who had designed the Congressional office buildings in Washington and the New York Public Library, served as consulting architect and designed the tollbooth (now gone) and the guardhouse on the Portsmouth side. , Local architects Howe and Church remodeled an existing summer house for the Mount Hope Bridge administration office, and landscape architect used native plants to enhance the approaches to the bridge. Steinman had the bridge itself painted green, a novel break from the traditional black or gray. He also installed decorative lighting along the cables and on the towers to illuminate the structure at night. As a result of these measures, the American Institute of Steel Construction gave its Artistic Bridge Award to the Mount Hope Bridge in 1929. , Five days after the pageant that marked the bridge's opening on October 24, 1929 came the stock market crash that marked the beginning of the Great Depression. The decline in toll revenues forced the company to reorganize, but the Mount Hope Bridge Corporation continued to operate the bridge privately until 1955 when the state took ownership. The Rhode Island Turnpike and Bridge Authority assumed control in 1964 and it continues to operate this bridge and the Newport Pell Bridge.