Klingle Valley Bridge
This bridge was constructed in 1931 to replace an earlier viaduct built by a streetcar company to extend Connecticut Avenue to the Maryland line.
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The Klingle Valley Bridge—also known as the Connecticut Avenue Bridge over Klingle Valley and DC Bridge No. 27—carries Connecticut Avenue over the deep, wooded ravine of the Klingle Valley in northwest DC. The historic route of Klingle Road runs beneath the bridge. For more than a century, this road was among several routes that provided access between the east and west sides of the Rock Creek Valley. After part of the road washed away in 1991, it was closed to automobile traffic.
Designed through the collaboration of architect Paul Cret and engineer Ralph Modjeski, the new bridge was built for the DC Department of Highways under the supervision of Clifford Riddle Whyte, the Engineer of Bridges. Resident engineer Albert B. Green oversaw construction onsite.
The Connecticut Avenue Bridge is an excellent example of an engineering design that illustrates changing transportation modes in Washington in the early twentieth century. It was built in 1931 to replace an obsolete bridge that had been built in 1891 by the Rock Creek and Potomac Railway Company. By the 1930s, Connecticut Avenue had become a major thoroughfare, and automobiles had almost completely supplanted horse-drawn vehicles. The new bridge was built to provide a wider crossing that would safely carry pedestrians, cars, trucks, and buses, as well as streetcars, over the Klingle Valley.
DC Inventory: January 29, 2004
National Register: May 21, 2004
