The Bridge of Lions is a bascule bridge that spans the Intracoastal Waterway in St. Augustine, Florida. A part of State Road A1A, it connects downtown St. Augustine to Anastasia Island. A pair of Medici lions made of marble guard the bridge, begun in 1925 and completed in 1927 across Matanzas Bay. The lions were removed in February 2005 and returned in March 2011.
Roads & Bridges magazine named the Bridge of Lions as fourth in the nation’s top 10 bridges for 2010. Projects were evaluated based on size, community impact and challenges resolved.
The Department of Transportation declared the bridge "structurally deficient and functionally obsolete" in 1999, prompting heated debates on what to do with the structure. A restoration plan was approved, but opponents continued to voice their opposition. Reynolds, Smith and Hills from nearby Jacksonville was awarded the engineering and design contract, estimated at $77 million, and projected to require five years to complete.
Read more about Bridge Of Lions: First Bridge, Original Bridge of Lions, Replacement Bridge, New Bridge of Lions, Gallery
Famous quotes containing the words bridge and/or lions:
“What need the bridge much broader than the flood?”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Danger knows full well
That Caesar is more dangerous than he.
We are two lions littered in one day,
And I the elder and more terrible,
And Caesar shall go forth.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)