Crosses Charles River No. of spans 3 arches, 330 feet Location Cambridge Body of water Charles River | Design arch bridge Opened 1925 Bridge type Arch bridge | |
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Carries east-bound traffic on River Street to Cambridge Street Locale Cambridge, Massachusetts to Allston, Boston, Massachusetts Maintained by Massachusetts Department of Transportation Address River St, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA Similar Western Avenue Bridge, Anderson Memorial Bridge, Eliot Bridge, Harvard Bridge, John W Weeks Bridge | ||
The River Street Bridge is a bridge connecting River Street in Cambridge, MA to Cambridge Street in Allston, Boston, MA. It was built in 1925 by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Metropolitan District Commission.
The bridge carries one-way traffic going east, into Cambridge. Westbound traffic must take the nearby Western Avenue Bridge.
History
The original bridge at the site, a wooden drawbridge, was built in 1810. The bridge was built in response to the 1793 construction of the West Boston Bridge (at the site of the current Longfellow Bridge), because the two bridges together greatly shortened the route from Boston to Cambridge, which previously had to take a highway around the Back Bay through Roxbury.
The current reinforced-concrete bridge was constructed in 1925 with three arches that span 330 feet. It was designed by Robert P. Bellows in a style resembling the Pont Neuf in Paris.