The
1893
World’s Columbian
Exposition, held in Chicago, set the standard for new
construction with the start of the City Beautiful
Movement in architecture
and engineering. Over the next forty years, European classical styles of Greek
and Roman design, as influenced by the
Ecole de Beaux Arts in Paris, France,
would dominate the way public buildings, parks and bridges were to be built.
The Columbus
Master Plan of 1908 would bring that popular European vision to Franklin County
with the suggestion that bridges be built as “distinctive and important civic
monuments.” This inspired renowned bridge engineer and Cleveland native
Wilbur
J. Watson to design ornate concrete arch structures for King Avenue
(1914), Third Street (1917), and Lane Avenue (1919) that extolled both
structural beauty and the strength to withstand seasonal flooding and the
demands of the evolving “Auto Age.”
