You’ve probably driven over it a thousand times without glancing up. If you live in Northwest DC or you're just visiting the Zoo, the Taft Bridge in Washington DC is basically just a functional stretch of Connecticut Avenue. But honestly? It’s a marvel. It’s one of those rare spots where engineering grit meets Gilded Age ego, and if you stop to actually look at it, the bridge starts telling stories about a city that was trying to prove it belonged on the world stage.
Most people call it the "Lion Bridge." That’s fair. The massive concrete lions guarding the ends are its most famous feature. But there is so much more to this structure than just some stone cats. It was a gamble. When it was built at the turn of the 20th century, people weren't exactly sure that unreinforced concrete—essentially just a giant pour of liquid stone—could handle the weight of a city's ambition. It did. And it’s still standing.
The Bridge That Almost Didn't Use Steel
Back in the 1890s, Washington was growing fast. The "Millionaire’s Row" of Connecticut Avenue needed to jump over the massive gorge of Rock Creek Park to reach the developing suburbs of Kalorama and Woodley Park. George S. Morison, a legendary bridge engineer, had a vision. He didn't want a spindly metal eyesore. He wanted something that looked like the Roman aqueducts.
We are talking about mass concrete.
The Taft Bridge in Washington DC was one of the largest unreinforced concrete structures in the world when it was completed in 1908. Think about that for a second. No rebar. No internal skeleton of steel to keep it from snapping under tension. It relies almost entirely on compression and the sheer weight of its own mass to stay upright. Morison died before he saw it finished, but his successor, Edward P. Casey—the same guy who did the interior of the Library of Congress—stayed true to that "big stone" energy.
It cost about $850,000 back then. In today's money, that's roughly $28 million. For a bridge that’s only about 1,300 feet long, that was a massive investment for a city that was still figuring out its identity.
Those Famous Lions and the R. Roland Holst Connection
You can't talk about the Taft Bridge without mentioning the lions. There are four of them. They were sculpted by Roland Hinton Perry, the same guy who did the "Court of Neptune" fountain at the Library of Congress.
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These aren't your typical "majestic" lions. They look a bit... tired? Maybe stoic is the better word. Two have their eyes open, watching the traffic flow into the heart of the city, while the other two have their eyes closed. Locals used to joke that the lions would wake up and roar whenever a virgin crossed the bridge. It’s a classic bit of DC folklore that has survived for over a century, though the lions have remained remarkably quiet.
But here’s the thing: those lions aren't the originals. Well, they are and they aren't. By the 1960s, the original concrete lions were literally crumbling. Pollution and DC's humid summers had turned them into featureless gray blobs. In the 1990s, the city finally got serious about a restoration. They took molds of the originals and cast new ones out of more durable material. If you look closely at the pedestals, you can see the slight difference in texture compared to the weathered arches below.
Why It’s Named After William Howard Taft
It wasn't always the Taft Bridge. For decades, it was just the "Connecticut Avenue Bridge." It was renamed in 1931 to honor William Howard Taft, the 27th President and later the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Taft lived nearby on Wyoming Avenue.
He used to walk across this bridge regularly. Legend has it he’d stroll from his home to the city center, which is impressive when you consider Taft was a big guy—the biggest president we’ve had. There’s something poetic about a massive, heavy, unreinforced concrete bridge being named after a man of his stature and legal weight.
Walking the Span: What to Look For
If you’re going to experience the Taft Bridge in Washington DC properly, you have to get out of your car. Seriously. The sidewalk is narrow and the traffic hums right next to your shoulder, but the view is unbeatable.
Look down. You are standing 125 feet above the valley floor. Below you is Rock Creek Park, with its winding trails and the creek itself snaking through the trees. From this height, the city feels distant, even though you’re right in the middle of it. You can see the Duke Ellington Bridge just a few hundred yards to the east. That bridge (the Calvert Street Bridge) is the "fancy" one with the limestone and the Art Deco vibes, but Taft is the "strong" one.
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Notice the lamp posts. They are replicas of the original 1908 designs. They have this beautiful, ornate ironwork that looks completely out of place next to a modern SUV, and that’s exactly why they’re great. They anchor the bridge in a specific moment in time when we believed public infrastructure should be beautiful, not just functional.
The Engineering Reality: How Is It Still Standing?
Engineering nerds love this bridge because of the "closed-spandrel" design. Basically, instead of a bunch of open arches, the spaces between the arches and the road are filled in. This adds immense weight but also incredible stability.
Is it safe? Yeah. But it requires constant vigilance.
In the late 20th century, the bridge underwent a massive $10 million renovation. Engineers had to figure out how to strengthen a bridge that wasn't designed for the 20,000+ cars that cross it every day. They ended up adding some steel reinforcement during the deck replacement—shh, don't tell the purists—but the core arches remain the original mass concrete.
One of the coolest features is the "expansion joints." Because concrete expands in the heat and shrinks in the cold, the bridge has to "breathe." If you walk across on a very hot July day, the gaps in the sidewalk might be slightly smaller than they are in the dead of January. It’s a living thing.
Misconceptions About the "Suicide Bridge"
There is a darker side to the bridge’s history. For a long time, both the Taft and the nearby Duke Ellington Bridge were associated with people jumping. It’s a grim reality of high spans in urban areas.
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You’ll notice the high steel fences now. Those were a point of massive contention in the 1980s and 90s. Preservationists hated them. They argued that the fences ruined the aesthetic of the historic bridge. On the other side, mental health advocates and local residents argued that saving lives was more important than a "clean" architectural line.
The fences stayed. While they definitely change the "open" feel the designers originally intended, they’ve been successful. It’s a reminder that historic preservation always has to balance the past with the needs of the people living in the present.
Practical Advice for Visiting
If you want to do more than just drive over it, here is how you actually "see" the Taft Bridge:
- Park in Woodley Park. Don't try to park on Connecticut Ave near the bridge. Find a spot in the neighborhood or just take the Red Line to the Woodley Park-Zoo station.
- Golden Hour is king. The bridge faces North-South, so the low sun in the late afternoon hits those concrete arches and the lions with a warm, orange glow that makes for incredible photos.
- Go underneath. Take the Western Ridge Trail in Rock Creek Park. Looking up at the arches from the valley floor gives you a much better sense of the sheer scale of the concrete work. It makes you feel tiny.
- Pair it with the Duke Ellington Bridge. Walk a loop. Cross the Taft heading south, turn left on Florida Ave or Kalorama Rd, then come back north over the Duke Ellington Bridge. You get two completely different architectural styles in one 20-minute walk.
Why We Should Care About Old Concrete
It’s easy to get excited about marble monuments or glass skyscrapers. Concrete? Not so much. But the Taft Bridge in Washington DC represents a moment where we stopped using just bricks and started using "liquid stone" to reshape the world.
It’s a bridge that doesn't try to be light or airy. It’s heavy. It’s permanent. It’s a testament to the idea that even a highway overpass can be a work of art if you care enough to put four giant lions on it.
The next time you’re stuck in traffic on Connecticut Avenue, roll down the window. Look at the texture of the concrete. Look at the lions. Remember that you’re driving on a century-old experiment that actually worked.
Actionable Next Steps
- Visit the Lions: Head to the intersection of Connecticut Ave and Calvert St NW to see the northern pair of lions up close.
- Hike the Valley: Access the Rock Creek Park trails via the stairs near the Omni Shoreham Hotel to see the bridge's underbelly.
- Check the Archive: If you're a history buff, the Library of Congress holds the original architectural drawings by Edward P. Casey—you can view digitized versions on their website to see the internal "voids" designed into the concrete.