- City:
- Lewiston, ME
- Site Type:
- Infrastructure and Utilities, Roads, Bridges, and Tunnels
- New Deal Agencies:
- Public Works Funding, Bureau of Public Roads (BPR)
- Started:
- 1936
- Completed:
- 1937
- Quality of Information:
- Very Good
- Marked:
- No
- Site Survival:
- Extant
Description
One of the 26 bridges in Maine that were destroyed or damaged by the 1936 flood and rebuilt by the US Works Program Flood Relief projects and were handled under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Public Roads, US Dept. of Agriculture. All bridges were placed under construction in 1936. In some cases, labor was provided by the Works Progress Administration. Work was completed in 1937 By Builder/Contractor: Phoenix Bridge Company of Phoenixville, Pennsylvania
The bridge is a metal 8 Panel Rivet-Connected Polygonal Warren Through Truss. Length is 723 feet.
Formerly known as the South Bridge, it was re-named for Lewiston son Dr. Bernard Lown in 2008. Mr. Lown is a Nobel Peace Prize–winning activist, receiving the 1985 award as co-founder of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War and inventor of the direct current defibrillator.
Source notes
Historic Bridges of Maine: 350 Years of Bridge and Roadway Design Edited by David E. Gardner & Lisa Churchill-Dickson
Maine State Highway Commission Annual Report 1936
https://historicbridges.org/bridges/browser/?bridgebrowser=maine/south/
https://www.bates.edu/news/2016/12/21/whats-in-a-lewiston-name-lown/
Site originally submitted by Andrew Laverdiere on August 22, 2021.
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