Bridge No: 2370001400200

Asset ID: 869

County: Greenville

Bridge Name:

Facility Carried: S-23-14 (McDaniel Avenue)

Feature Intersected: CSX Railroad (Abandoned)

Year Built: 1938

Year Reconstructed:

Main Structure Type: Rigid Frame

Design:

Main Material: Reinforced concrete

Railing Type: Concrete balustrades

Number of Main Spans: 1

Number of Approach Spans: 0

Approach Type:

Structure Length: 72 feet

Structure Width: 50 feet

Setting: The bridge carries a 2-lane street and sidewalks over an overgrown railroad right of way (track removed) in a leafy, landscaped residential neighborhood north of Cleveland Park and south of E. Washington Street and the Pettigru Street Historic District.McDaniel Avenue forms a Y intersection with Ridgewood Avenue beyond the south end of the bridge.The residential area south of the bridge and railroad has large, modern homes.The area to the north is dominated by modern redevelopment and a few altered period buildings.

The 1 span, 72'-long, custom-design, rigid frame bridge is well detailed in the period Art Deco-influenced Neo-classical mode.The dominant feature of the bridge is the shallow, arch-like shape that is accented with a stepped chamfer detail that adds a shadow line at the opening.The plain spandrel walls are flanked by oversized pilasters with flat panels, battered caps and flanking diminishing buttresses on each side.The same stepped detail is used to define the flat panels.The verticality of the pilasters is balanced by the strong horizontal line established by the belt course at the curb lines and the balustrades with closely spaced, lozenge-shaped openings. The pilaster caps serve as the plain end posts for the balustrades on the roadway side.Smaller paneled pilasters define the end of the retaining wall that holds back fill on the north end of the bridge. They abut fieldstone retaining walls that may predate this bridge.The bridge appears to be complete.

The reinforced concrete rigid frame bridge was built in 1938 on the south side of a notable early-twentieth century residential district and in the vicinity of Cleveland Park. It is the only example of the bridge type in the state, meaning that it was a bridge type that did not play a significant role in the development of South Carolina highways and byways.What distinguishes this example and makes it historically significant is its architectonic detailing.The McDaniel Avenue overpass ranks with the handful of open spandrel arch bridges as being among the most handsome and beautiful pre-World War II bridges in the state.The reinforced concrete rigid frame bridge, where the top member and the verticals are integral and the legs perform useful work in supporting the loads, originated in Europe during the last part of the 19th century, but did not find its way to this country until the early 1920s.Arthur G. Hayden, design engineer of the Westchester County (New York) Park Commission, first used it for overpasses on the Bronx River Parkway in the late 1920s.Rigid frame bridges require expensive form work to erect, but the bridge type is an effective use of material, and it reduces the amount of work in ground because the mass of the abutments is reduced.The intrinsic form, with its shallow arch profile and pleasing proportions, lent itself well to settings where an aesthetic bridge was desired.The moldable qualities of the concrete make possible the fine aesthetic treatments that the most notable examples, like this one, reflect.The detailing is a successful Art Deco interpretation of Neo-classicism.The bridge is eligible under Criterion C for high artistic merit.

The bridge crossed the former Charleston & Western Carolina Railroad, a mid-19th century line that connected Port Royal, SC, through Augusta, GA, to Anderson, Greenville, and Spartanburg.It was a minor line that was part of the Central of Georgia family until 1894 when it was taken over by the Atlantic Coast Line (ACL) Railroad.It provided service to points inland from the ACL’s main line, which is near the coast.It is not known when this section of the line was abandoned.