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The Marshall Street Viaduct and the MLK Bridge
09/12/2011 12:49 PM by John M
richmond.com has a great little history of the Marshall Street Viaduct and the MLK Bridge:
Why was the Leigh Street Viaduct built? It’s so large and gets so little traffic. Did it get more traffic decades ago? It seems like a bridge to nowhere. I’d love to know more about it and the Marshall Street Viaduct it replaced.
Great article! I’ve actually asked those same questions myself lately, glad to see them answered so thoroughly. Can’t wait to show off this new knowledge next time I am driving over the bridge with my girlfriend!
Was it purely coincidencental that this story was posted right at the same time as a story about a shooting on the bridge?
Bridge to nowhere? Thats the bridge to my house.
@Alex – yep
That’s not the story I’ve always heard. Local historians and the head of a popular CDC tell this version:
The Martin Luther King bridge was originally built with the intention of linking it to a multi-lane connector highway/extension to I-64 East. This would have connected downtown to I64 just west of the airport. Think Pocahontas Pkwy running right thru Union Hill/Fairmount. The goal was to have a faster way to get to the airport/Tidewater without having to travel the congested I95/I64 overlap that runs north of downtown.
That’s why Carrington and O Streets are still cobblestone. They never got paved over because they were going to be torn up anyway for the 6-lane expressway to the airport.
This was in the days when the automobile was the messiah and highway planners thought it was ok to run a interstate thru an inner-city neighborhood. Think Jackson Ward getting severed by I-95/I-64.
Strong women and men in the Fairmount/Church/Union Hill community fought like the dickens to keep this multi-lane highway from happening. And they won. They didn’t want to see the same thing happen to Church Hill that happened to Jackson Ward.
And that’s why the MLK Bridge is over-built. It’s the story I’m stickin’ to.
John – wow, what are the odds…
Was wondering if maybe you were starting some new series of historical facts paired with crime stories. “Hey something bad happened here today but some really cool stuff also happened here a while back.” 😉
To understand the answer to this question see the story immediately following this one.
Three men shot on MLK Bridge
@Elaine- that’s the story I’ve always heard. Although this article doesn’t conflict with that story.
Elaine Odell is right on the money with her comment.
The MLK Bridge was built for the connection to the airport.
The old Marshall Street Viaduct had been in use for many of years. When it became too old and bad to be repaired they City decided to take it down and built a new bridge from Leigh Steet over the valley to the Hill! This is a good bridge and it does get used quite a bit.
The MLK bridge is invaluable to anyone who lives in the east end and needs to get around the city by bike. I don’t want to ruin the secret but Leigh st is by far the fastest way to get from the Boulevard to the east end.
I know this may seem a bit out there- but is there any interest in redoing the Church Hill rail tunnel into a functional route?
uh, isn’t it kind of a tomb? The rail tunnel? Or if not containing actual bodies, kind of a lasting testament to mans hubris, like a memorial to flawed engineering? But I’m pretty sure there’s at least one body down there, right? Or am I making this up….
John, thanks for the information on the Marshall Street Viaduct; I’ve been wanting to know more about it. Elaine, thank you for your insight on the origins of the Leigh St/MLK Bridge – it’s nice to know a little more history of the city and our neighborhood!
I used the viaduct to go to work at MCV until the MLK bridge replaced it. Too bad the replacement was overbuilt (which I always wondered about), but it certainly is NOT a bridge to nowhere. I use it almost every day. Beats doing the Broad Street shuffle!
I use the MLK bridge to get from Church Hill to VCU for evening classes. It’s much more efficient at rush hour than traveling on Broad or Main Streets.
Richmond’s Lost Skyway: The Marshall Street Viaduct
http://theshockoeexaminer.blogspot.com/2011/10/richmonds-lost-skyway-marshall-street.html