Dumbarton Bridge (Buffalo Bridge)

From washingtonhistory.com:

Known popularly as the Buffalo Bridge,
the Q Street Bridge that connects
Dupont Circle and Georgetown is one of
Washington’s most unusual masonry bridges,
with a gentle curve, multiple arches, and
decorative features that include Indian heads
and the familiar Buffaloes guarding each
entrance.

Georgetown citizens had lobbied for years
for a grand bridge over Rock Creek Park,
long before they witnessed the Connecticut
Avenue (Taft) Bridge built in 1907, and an
impressive 16th Street bridge built over Piney
Branch in 1910. The bridge at Q Street was
finally authorized by Congress in 1911. And
like the others nearly 100 years later, the Q
Street Bridge is also about to have its impressive
bronze sculptures restored.

This was a time of nostalgic interest and
sympathy for Native Americans, as evidenced
by the release of the Indian Head/Buffalo
nickel in 1913. With lions on the Taft Bridge
and tigers adorning the 16th Street bridge,
buffaloes were proposed as “mascots” for
the Q Street bridge. Because the city’s commissioners
had been impressed by sculptor
Alexander Phimister Proctor’s 16th Street
bridge tigers, which had been cast in bronze
at his own expense, he was awarded the contract
for producing bronze buffaloes for the
Q Street Bridge in 1911.

Glenn Brown was chosen as the architect
of the bridge. He began a partnership with
his son Bedford Brown in 1907 after many
years in business, and is perhaps best known
for his central role in the McMillan Plan.

Brown designed a 342-foot long, curved
bridge, which is unique, as their construction
is much more complex. The New
York construction firm of A.L. Guidone &
Company was given the contract to construct
the bridge, which began in 1914.

To accommodate the bridge’s approach
on the Georgetown side, the Dumbarton
House, which occupied a site adjacent to
Rock Creek, was relocated a few blocks
west, and was raised off its foundation,
rotated 90 degrees, and now occupies its
present-day position on the north side of the 2700 block of Q Street.