Lauzun’s Legion (P Street) Bridge - Washington DC

State:: WASHINGTON-DC
Site Type:: Infrastructure and Utilities, Roads, Bridges, and Tunnels
New Deal Agencies:: Public Works Funding, Public Works Administration (PWA)
Started:: 1935
Completed:: 1936
Designer:: Albert Harris
Contractors:: A.T. Carroza, Pecora-Gaskill
Quality of Information:: Very Good
Site Survival:: Extant

Description

The Lauzun’s Legion Bridge – formerly the P Street Bridge – spans both Rock Creek and the Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway at P Street. It was a critical piece in the completion of the parkway, which was impeded by an earlier bridge at this site.

Funding was provided by the Public Works Administration (PWA) in 1934 (Evening Star 1934). Construction took place in 1935-36 and the bridge was dedicated in July 1935.

The parkway could not be finished, however, until a lower level bridge just to the north carrying the road across the creek was finished a year later. It, too, was funded by the PWA grant.

The upper level P Street bridge is 336 feet long with a double elliptical arch. It is faced with multi-colored ashlar outlined by smooth granite. Albert Harris (1869-1933) is credited with the design, along with other officials, and it was built by the Pecora-Gaskill Engineering and Construction Corporation, along with A. T. Carroza of Baltimore, at a cost of $199,000.

The P Street Bridge was rehabilitated in 2004 and shortly thereafter given its current name of the Lauzun’s Legion Bridge.

Source notes

“Bridge Abutment Nears Completion: Work on New P Street Span is Progressing Rapidly,” The Evening Star (Washington, DC), May 18, 1934, p. B-8.

“P Street Bridge,” Historic American Engineering Record (HAER No. DC-48), National Park Service, 1993 (accessed June 9, 2019).

“P Street Bridge,” BridgeHunter.com: Historic and Notable Bridges of the U.S. (accessed June 9, 2019).

“P Street Bridge,” Wikipedia (accessed June 9, 2019).

“Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway Historic District,” National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, National Park Service, 1990 (accessed June 9, 2019).

Site originally submitted by Brent McKee on May 31, 2012.
Additional contributions by Richard A Walker.