Monroe Street Bridge (Spokane, Washington)

The third bridge under construction

The current bridge of 1911 is the third in this location. The first, a rather rickety wooden structure, was built in 1889. It was closed for a time due to arguments in the city over rights of passage and ownership, and burned down on July 22, 1890. The second was a steel bridge that opened June 27, 1892. It vibrated badly and had a noticeable dip in the center. On August 28, 1905, consultant from the Good Roads Movement considered the bridge unsafe.[7]

The design of the third bridge was largely copied from the Rocky River Bridge[8][9] in Cleveland, Ohio, but was built one foot (0.3 m) longer to make it the largest concrete arch in the U.S. at the time.[1] In turn, the Rocky River Bridge was modeled after the Walnut Lane Bridge in Philadelphia,[10] which was modeled after the Adolphe Bridge in Luxembourg.[11][12]

The Monroe Street bridge was designed with ornamental features such as bison skulls, covered pavilions, and a chain-link railing motif.[1] The bison skull was an inspiration of P. C. Shine, who had found it in Alberta at Drumheller in the early 1900s. Located just west of the Falls, the bridge runs due north-south and opened on November 23, 1911.[2][3]

21st century restoration

Monroe Street Bridge under renovation in 2003

By the 1990s, the bridge had deteriorated to the point where rebuilding it was necessary. On January 6, 2003, the bridge was closed for restoration,[13][14] dismantled down to the central arch, and rebuilt faithfully to its original appearance. The bridge was reopened in 2005 on September 17, with new railings and concrete separating the walkways from the road.[1][4][15]

The Monroe Street Bridge has a local reputation as being a suicide bridge.[16] According to the Spokane County Medical Examiners Office, from 2006 to 2018 there was an average of 2.4 deaths per year on the bridge and nine out of 13 witnessed or videotaped incidents of bridge jumper suicides on the Spokane River were on the Monroe Street Bridge.[17] With a bridge height from the deck floor to water of 135 feet and accounting for the air resistance drag on the human body in the 1.5 second free fall, the impact velocity at the waters surface is approximately 57.2 miles per hour which almost always causes traumatic injuries and jumpers either die of their injuries, drowning, hypothermia or a combination of these.[17] The Spokane Police Department receives an average of 20 calls about suicidal individuals a year on the Monroe Street Bridge and despite this, there is currently (as of August 2020) no formal measures in place to try to discourage or prevent people from jumping off the bridge.[18] The city created a Suicide Prevention Task Force in 2018 and has discussed installing safety barriers, a telephone that connects to a suicide prevention hotline on the bridge, and patrolling the bridge.[18] Although they are often removed, members of the community sometimes place suicide prevention signage and messages of hope on the deck fence railings to make people think again about their actions and dissuade potential jumpers.[19] Concerned citizens have petitioned local officials for permanent signage.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Monroe Street Bridge.

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• List of crossings of the Spokane River

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  Monroe Street Bridge in 1889
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  Monroe Street Bridge in 1890s
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  Monroe Street Bridge on September 14, 1909
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  Monroe Street Bridge in 1911 shortly after completion

• Monroe Street Bridge - City-County of Spokane Historic Preservation Office
• Moyano, David C., P.E., S.E., M.ASCE; Shrope, Stephen J., P.E., S.E., M.ASCE (2006). "Past Perfect". Civil Engineering Magazine. American Society of Civil Engineers. Archived from the original on September 9, 2006. Retrieved September 12, 2006.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

• Creighton, Jeff (2013). Bridges of Spokane. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7385-9635-8. OCLC 820434643.