Property Record
6TH ST OVER THE ROOT RIVER
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | West 6th Street Bridge (P-51-0709) |
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| Other Name: | |
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| Reference Number: | 11344 |
| Location (Address): | 6TH ST OVER THE ROOT RIVER |
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| County: | Racine |
| City: | Racine |
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| Year Built: | 1928 |
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| Additions: | |
| Survey Date: | 19752015 |
| Historic Use: | bridge |
| Architectural Style: | Art Deco |
| Structural System: | Concrete Arch |
| Wall Material: | Concrete |
| Architect: | Charles Smith Whitney |
| Other Buildings On Site: | |
| Demolished?: | Yes |
| Demolished Date: | 2022 |
| National/State Register Listing Name: | Not listed |
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| Additional Information: | A 'site file' exists for this property. It contains additional information such as correspondence, newspaper clippings, or historical information. It is a public record and may be viewed in person at the State Historical Society, Division of Historic Preservation. 2015- The W. 6th Street Bridge was designed by Charles S. Whitney and built by the Zendala Construction Company in 1928. It is 161 feet long and 58 feet wide with a single, long arch over the river and a smaller slab span over the parkway drive, and is made of reinforced concrete with decorative terra cotta relief panels. Concrete spandrel supports terminate in curved corbels just below the deck. The terra cotta, produced by the Northwestern Terra Cotta Company in Chicago, depicts gargoyles, eagles, bison, ships, and agricultural symbols (including cornucopias, wheat, and plows) along the sides of the bridge. Ceramic tile panels visible on the deck are made of colorful, geometric patterned squares. The bridge originally featured two tall, bronze, light fixtures at each abutment that were mounted on terra cotta lamp standards. They corroded and were removed in 1969; however, two of the lanterns survived and are now mounted at the entrance to the Racine Heritage Museum in downtown Racine. The hinged bronze panels that would have provided access for electrical wiring are still mounted on the sides of the balustrade. The bridge originally contained an electric streetcar line that carried area residents downtown; this infrastructure, which included ornamented trolley poles at the center of the bridge, has also been removed. Charles S. Whitney received his civil engineering degree from Cornell University in 1915 and spent much of his career running a private engineering consulting firm in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. During this time he gained an international reputation for his research and promotion of concrete as a building material, particularly in bridge architecture. He died in 1959. 2022: Bridge was demolished and a new bridge was built in it's placed which reuses some of the details from the old bridge (such as the gargoyles). CARVED AND MOSAIC TILES. HAER WI-18. |
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| Bibliographic References: | Hess, Jeffrey A. and Robert M. Frame. Wisconsin Stone-Arch and Concrete-Arch Bridges, Vol. 1. Prepared for the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, 1986. Historic American Engineering Record. West Sixth Street Bridge (Kinzie Avenue Bridge), Racine, Racine County, Wisconsin. HAER No. WI-18. Leach, E.W. “Racine Has Built Many Good Bridges.” The Racine Journal-News, February 18, 1922. “Some Facts about the City’s Handsomest Concrete Bridge.” The Journal Times, December 3, 1928. Whitney, Charles S. Bridges: A Study in their Art, Science, and Evolution, 1929. Reprint. Mineola, N.Y.: Dover Publications, Inc., 2003. "Architecture/History Survey: W. 6th Street Bridge over Root River, Racine Wisconsin." WHS Project #16-1087/RA. August 2015. Prepared by Mead & Hunt, Inc. |
| Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin |