Old North Park Bridge

Old North Park Bridge. . , Between 1884 and 1903, when three of its spans were swept away by a Grand River flood, a wooden bridge connected Comstock Park with the City of Grand Rapids. A year later, on the same location, a wrought iron truss bridge was built at a cost of $31,306., Using the so-called Pratt Truss design invented in 1844 by Thomas and Caleb Pratt, the New Jersey Bridge Company, working under the direction of Grand Rapids city engineer L.W. Anderson, produced a structure of five 116-foot spans characterized by crossed "X" braces in the center sections and single slanted braces at each end. Four concrete piers in the river and concrete abutments at each end supported the bridge which featured a 21-foot wooden plank deck, later replaced with asphalt, that could accommodate two lanes of traffic–horses and wagons in the early years and automobiles later one. Pedestrians crossed the bridge along a six-foot-wide plank sidewalk outside the trusses on the bridge's north side. Also to the north was a separate streetcar bridge. , By 1988, time and heavy use had taken their toll, and the North Park Bridge was closed to all traffic. Three years later, it was replaced with a wider, reinforced concrete structure. , This steel span from the 1904 bridge has been preserved as an example of early 20th-Century bridge-building materials and technology. , Placed by the City of Grand Rapids, 1998. , Caption View of Old North Park Bridge looking east with North Park Pavilion on the right and streetcar bridge on the left.