Urban Design
Of all the bridges that span the Cumberland River, the Shelby Street Bridge is the one that makes Nashville look like a city of the old school. The rest of the bridges across the Cumberland have been designed—if ”design“ is the appropriate word—to look and function like generic segments of a massive highway system. The recently constructed Jefferson Street Bridge, for example, ignores geography entirely by allowing motorists to cross the Cumberland without ever seeing it.
Opened to the public on July 5, 1909, when it was known as the Sparkman Street Bridge, the Shelby Bridge is an incarnation of the Industrial Revolution. Our very concept of the city is rooted in the age when the modern metropolis began to emerge in steel and reinforced concrete, the same materials used to build the bridge. Peering up at its underbelly from First Avenue, one imagines a WPA mural, or a gritty film noir set beneath its aging trusses.
Now the Shelby Bridge is to have a new incarnation. Metro has budgeted approximately $8 million for its rehab conversion to a pedestrian-oriented bridge. Six million dollars of that sum is included in the stadium construction budget; the rest will come from Metro Public Works. The form and function of the rehabbed bridge have led to much discussion and more than a little anxiety. At issue is whether the bridge will continue to look like what it is—an historic structure that works as a functional part of the city streetscape.
According to Ted Kniazewycz, bridge engineer with the Metro Public Works Department, the Shelby Street Bridge’s structural condition has deteriorated so badly that it can no longer safely support its current traffic flow. On Feb. 8 the bridge will be closed and stabilization work will begin. Not coincidentally, it is planned that the bridge will reopen for pedestrians in the final quarter of 1999, the same time that the Oilers take over their new stadium.
Right now, the fate of the Shelby Street Bridge is being discussed by the staff of the Tennessee Historical Commission. Because the bridge is on the National Register, and because general funds are being used for its replacement, the new Franklin Street Bridge, the historical commission must review the various options for its rehab. ”We can’t move forward with design,“ says Kniazewycz, ”until the state preservationists give us our limits“ on which portions of the bridge may be demolished and replaced, and which ones must be maintained. These limits have financial as well as design implications.
The most visible features of the Shelby Bridge are the steel trusses that outline the bridge’s profile as it spans the river. Public Works proposes to repair and reduce the stress on these trusses by eliminating the sidewalks that are now cantilevered from them on each side. A new concrete deck would provide a 15-foot-wide lane for bicycles and a possible trolley shuttle, as well as two elevated boardwalk-style sidewalks for pedestrians. A new bridge railing would allow better views of the river and downtown.
Trussed up
The debate between preservationists and Public Works centers on what will happen to the spans now used by traffic approaching the Shelby Bridge main deck from the east and west. Public Works has proposed demolishing both the east and west approach spans, replacing them with new construction. The plan necessitates removing the concrete trusses (called ”bow-string“ trusses because they resemble an arched bow) that support two spans of the western approach. Public Works suggests that some of the bow-string truss elements, which can be seen most clearly from First Avenue, might be salvaged and displayed as architectural sculpture in Riverfront Park.
The problem with this scenario is that the bow-string trusses are the most historically significant element of the bridge. They are unique to bridge construction in the United States and are a key reason for the Shelby Street Bridge’s place on the National Register. One alternative to eliminating the bow-string trusses is to repair and encase them in new concrete. But that option will cost money. Kniazewycz estimates that repairing the central span across the Cumberland and replacing the east and west approaches will cost $7.4 million. That figure could go as high as $8.4 million if the bow-string trusses are retained.
The Tennessee Historical Commission’s response to many aspects of the Public Works plan is negative. In a Jan. 26 letter to Kniazewycz, Herbert Harper, THC executive director, said the replacement of all of the supports for the eastern and western approaches, in particular the removal of the bow-string trusses, would have an ”adverse effect“ on the bridge’s historic character. Public Works must now respond to the commission, explaining why the proposed changes cannot be avoided or minimized.
It is also unclear where the new eastern and western approaches to the bridge would meet the riverbank. Tentative sketches prepared by Kniazewycz show new approaches ramping or spiraling down to Second Avenue on the west and angling toward the stadium on the East Bank. ”We were asked by the mayor’s office to explore the option of tying the bridge down to pedestrian-oriented locations,“ explains Kniazewycz. ”Keeping the existing alignment, of course, is also possible.“
The rehabbed Shelby Bridge has usually been imagined as a pedestrian, bicycle, and trolley connector between the east and west banks. The Public Works plan, however, severely limits vehicular access to a Shelby Pedestrian Bridge. Provision must be made to allow maintenance and emergency vehicles onto the bridge.
But Kniazewycz says use of the bridge by a trolley shuttle ”has never been defined.“ And he predicts, ”There’s not going to be a regular MTA route over the bridge. That’s not acceptable because of liability. We don’t want to mix pedestrians and vehicles.“ Kniazewycz says that, in theory, a trolley could use the bridge—if it shuttled from one end to the other without proceeding onto public streets. ”That way we could put a gate or bollard at each end to keep cars off the bridge.“ It’s difficult to understand why Public Works could not resolve liability issues by simply posting signs forbidding all motorized traffic other than trolleys.
Connective tissue
A number of government agencies, as well as private citizens, have reasons to be concerned about what happens to the Shelby Street Bridge. The Tennessee Department of Transportation must approve the final design for the bridge, and the Tennessee Historical Commission will make recommendations on what, if any, historic elements should be preserved. The Metro Development and Housing Agency (MDHA) has projects at both ends of the bridge—the stadium site on the East Bank and the arena campus downtown. The Greenways Commission envisions a bridge design and alignment that will serve as a vital link in a network of parks and trails connecting Shelby Bottoms and Shelby Park in the east with Fort Negley and the Bicentennial Mall in the west.
Residents of East Nashville’s historic districts stress that they will be the primary users of the bridge. They maintain that the alignment of the bridge should be geared to pedestrians and bikers in East Nashville neighborhoods. Meanwhile, owners of the Gerst Haus restaurant are talking about moving into the tower recently occupied by Trinity Marine Group. The tower, which rears up beside the eastern approach to the bridge, was part of the old Nashville Bridge Co. complex and is eligible to be listed on the National Register.
Metro Public Works, which is designing and partially paying for the new bridge, wants to make the best use of a limited budget. ”My fear is that when we’re finished we won’t have a spectacular bridge,“ Kniazewycz says, ”because preservation of the historic elements could eat up the budget for architectural enhancements.“ Such enhancements might include decorative lighting, designer railings, and special finishes to the new concrete.
Metro Historical Commission executive director Ann Reynolds has a different fear. ”If we radically change the Shelby Bridge,“ Reynolds says, ”we could destroy its reason for being. It needs to look like what it is—an historic bridge—because that’s why we’re keeping it. The bow-string trusses are the elements that give the bridge its historic engineering significance. Removing and relocating them is just not appropriate. If the rest of the approach supports must be replaced, the design should reflect the historic system.“
Reynolds also voices the concerns of many who question whether a bridge without trolleys is not doomed to a sort of twilight existence. ”If it’s not used as widely as possible, it will be difficult to justify future maintenance,“ she says.
Drastic changes to the bridge’s alignment could also affect the way it is used. Easier access for Second Avenue tourists and East Bank football fans might limit use of the bridge by commuters from East Nashville and pedestrians who might be drawn to the arena, the Country Music Hall of Fame, and other venues in SoBro. MDHA is investing a lot of tax dollars to encourage development of the arena campus and the Rolling Mill Hill area. Right now, the bridge provides access to these areas. It seems shortsighted to end the bridge at Second Avenue.
When the Shelby Street Bridge was constructed between 1907 and 1909, ex-convict and parolee labor was used, and four men died in the process. No chain gangs will be working on the Shelby Pedestrian Bridge, and no one is jumping into the ocher waters of the Cumberland to protest its design. But if the new incarnation does not look and act like a span between east and west, past and present, it could be a bridge to nowhere.
