- City:
- New Orleans, LA
- Site Type:
- Infrastructure and Utilities, Roads, Bridges, and Tunnels
- New Deal Agencies:
- Work Relief Programs, Works Progress Administration (WPA)
- Started:
- 1938
- Completed:
- 1939
- Quality of Information:
- Moderate
- Marked:
- Yes
- Site Survival:
- Extant
Description
As part of a massive $12-million project to improve New Orleans’s City Park, the WPA built nine concrete vehicular bridges between 1936 and 1939 throughout the expanded grounds.
Spanning Bayou Metairie near the southwest corner, the Anseman Avenue Bridge replaced one of the oldest bridges in the park.
Constructed in 1938, it crosses the bayou by a 114’-long, single-span, reinforced concrete, closed-spandrel arch. In elevation, its low elliptical arch is highlighted by the recessed extrados and the heavy, angular cutwater abutments.
The bridge carries two lanes of traffic over a 28”-wide concrete roadway; 5’ sidewalks are provided on both sides. Approach spans, flanked by heavy parapet railing, lead up to the bridge, creating a stately entry.
A stylized WPA logo is stamped in counter relief across the southeast end post.
Source notes
City Park New Orleans, “New Orleans City Park WPA Bridges Available for Naming and Sponsorship.” Unpublished document, August 2011. Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development, “Crossing the Bayou: Louisiana’s Historic Bridges.” Unpublished report, 2015. New Orleans Public Library, WPA Photograph Collection.Site originally submitted by John Murphey on January 9, 2016.
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