North 21st Street Bridge

The North 21st Street Bridge in Tacoma, Washington was built in 1910. It was designed by engineers Waddell & Harrington and is a continuous concrete rigid-frame girder bridge. It is significant as one of the very earliest examples of its type. It was built "almost simultaneously" with the 950-foot (290 m) Asylum Avenue Aqueduct in Knoxville, Tennessee, which was documented by Carl W. Condit to be the first continuous concrete girder bridge to be built.[2]^:1–2

North 21st Street Bridge
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Location	Spans Buckley Gulch, N. Fife and Oakes, Tacoma, Washington
Coordinates	47°16′3″N 122°28′11″W
Area	less than one acre
Built	1910
Built by	Creelman, Putnam & Healy
Architect	Waddell & Harrington
Architectural style	Rigid-frame girder bridge, Other
MPS	Historic Bridges/Tunnels in Washington State TR
NRHP reference No.	82004280[1]
Added to NRHP	July 16, 1982

It has three 60 feet (18 m) reinforced concrete spans with four continuous girders. Its spans are supported by reinforced concrete columns and abutments. The bridge has "massive and over-designed" slabs (9 feet deep) and beams (from 4 to 7 feet wide, from 9 to 11 feet deep. It is 48 feet (15 m) wide to accommodate trolley tracks in the middle.[2]

It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.[1]

See also

• North 23rd Street Bridge, similar, nearby, narrower, longer, also designed by Waddell & Harrington and also NRHP-listed

References

1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
2. Lisa Soderberg (1979). "HAER/Washington State Bridge Inventory: North 21st Street Bridge". National Park Service. Retrieved 2016-06-10. with two photos