Los Angeles County, California Bridges: East Washington Boulevard Bridge across the Los Angeles River

March 1931 (34.0174 Degrees, -118.2230 degrees) Los Angeles River Bridges

For some reason I never photographed the lovely Washington Boulevard Bridge (53C1375), which is just downstream from the Olympic Boulevard Bridge. However, I was able to get a photo of it from the UCLA Library/Digital Collection. It was taken on March 23, 1931, the opening day for this five span T girder bridge on wide pier walls. We can see that the city had continued to build bridges across the Los Angeles River using the 'Beautiful Cities' ethos. This bridge includes large pylons at the four corners decorated with terra cotta images of the people who designed and built this structure. Another drawing by the city (shown below) gives information on the original design and on the seismic retrofit that was done in the 1990s.