Shakespeare Bridge
It’s likely most people don’t know that the Shakespeare Bridge in the Los Feliz area of Los Angeles is technically the Franklin Avenue Bridge. The plaque at the east end of the bridge doesn’t even mention it. The bridge was designed by civil engineer J.C. Wright of the Los Angeles Bureau of Engineering. It was built in 1926 ostensibly to provide easy roadway access from the Franklin Hills neighborhood to East Hollywood and the Ivanhoe School District. With four Gothic-style steepled towers at each end, the bridge is 261 feet long and quite narrow — about 30 feet including the half-sized sidewalks lining each side of the road. This makes the width allowable for cars only about 20 feet. It was designated a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 1974. It was largely rebuilt in a 4-year retrofit project after the 1994 Northridge earthquake.
Los Angeles, Los Angeles County
Photographers: John Bare, Andrew Schmidt