City - Providence RI - Crawford Street Bridge 1906 Postcard

Colorized photo from 1906 Original title: Crawford street bridge Location: Crawford street bridge, Providence RI This bridge has an interesting history. This is the Crawdord Street bridge, it was completed in 1904, and until at least the early 1980's it was the widest bridge in the world, it set a world record. It stood 1150ft wide, it was basically a large land mass. The Providence river, was used as a sewer pipe in those days. Human waste and all sorts of other nasty things flowed down it. And so, it smelled really bad. So bad in fact that fine ladies would faint at the scent. So the solution was to build a bridge, so wide that it covered a portion of the town. Then the town thrived, it became one large road, and it stayed that way until very recently, around 1990 or so, they removed much of the bridge, and opened the water up again. It was no longer a sewer, and it now serves to make the city look pretty. The bridge was replaced by something that looks old, but is much more narrow.