Carroll Avenue Bridge

Carroll Avenue Bridge. . Three bridges have been built across Sligo Creek at Carroll Avenue. The first bridge, built about 1878, was a simple wooden structure located about 150 feet below the site of the present bridge. When the Seventh-day Adventist Church established a hospital and college nearby in 1904, it became apparent that a larger bridge capable of handling increasing traffic for the growing community was needed. , , Walter Douglas, who engineered the Lion Bridge on Connecticut Avenue, designed and supervised construction of the new reinforced concrete structure. The Adventist Church made a substantial contribution toward the $10,000 costs, and the bridge opened on July 22, 1909, with a speed limit of 8 miles per hour! , , The Douglas Bridge served the town until the 1930s, when population growth and ever increasing automobile traffic demanded a larger structure. Governor Albert C. Ritchie and leading state, county, and city officials opened the three-lane steel and concrete bridge on September 14, 1932, in a gala celebration attended by over 1,000 people.