P Street Bridge

From Donald Beekman Myer's Bridges and the City of Washington (U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, Washington DC, 1974):

The 1935 stone arched P Street Bridge stands on an extremely old and historic site. Until the mid-nineteenth century, this was a favorite fording point, and it was here that the Baltimore Light Dragoons and the French units led by Lafayette, Count Rochambeau, and Duc de Lauzan crossed Rock Creek during the Revolution.

A low-level, covered bridge crossed the creek from 1855 until 1871 when Georgetown and Washington jointly constructed a $43,000 metal Pratt truss bridge, 112 feet long , 56 feet wide, and 44 feet high. This truss bridge, which was typical of most Rock Creek crossings in the late nineteenth century, had to be rebuilt in 1893.

The present 1935 low, double-arched bridge was designed by the District of Columbia Bridge Division and the office of the Municipal Architect in consultation with the Commission of Fine Arts. Its builder was contractor Pecora, Gaskill of Baltimore who got the job on a $193,054 bid, but spent $250,000, thus losing over $50,000. P Street Bridge is 336 feet long with a 40-foot roadway and 6-foot, 6-inch walks.

Faces of the bridge are rough, random ashlar with smooth, cut-stone arch rings and parapet trim. Between the two arches and on each end of the bridge are wide pilasters or low towers which give squat vertical accents. Two low arches cross the creek on the east and the parkway on the west.

P Street Bridge is in harmony with efforts to provide Rock Creek with individually designed masonry arched crossings. Except for its very low relief stone trim, its three pilasters, and its arches, the bridge is quite plain. It is a good foil for its elaborate neighbor to the north, Dumbarton Bridge, and its haunted archless neighbor to the south, M Street Bridge.