ORMEWOOD BRIDGE - LANDMARK DESIGNATION REPORT
The Atlanta Preservation Center commissioned Landmark Preservation LLC (Landmark) to conduct archival research in order to complete a Landmark Designation Report for the Ormewood Avenue Bridge located between the Ormewood Park and Grant Park neighborhoods in Atlanta.
ORMEWOOD AVENUE BRIDGE (1899-1900) HAS BEEN RECOGNIZED BY THE CITY PLANNING DEPARTMENT OF THE CITY OF ATLANTA AS THE FIRST STRUCTURE TO BE A DESIGNATED LANDMARK BUILDING / SITE.
The Ormewood Avenue Bridge is associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our history, particularly for its association with railroad transportation history that directly contributed to and shaped the development of the City of Atlanta and the Southeastern United States. Ormewood Bridge was built on the southeast portion of what is now the Atlanta Beltline, the last portion of the railroad line to be built by the Atlanta Belt Railroad Company (a subsidiary of the Atlanta and West Point Railroad). Standing at approximately 162’-0” in length and 38’-6” tall, the bridge clearly dominates and is strongly identified in the street scene as the connector between the historic residential neighborhoods of Ormewood Park to the east and Grant Park to the west. The Ormewood Avenue Bridge is a unique structure type as an early example of a cast in place concrete railroad bridge not only in the City, but also the State of Georgia. The bridge has an exceptionally unique style as a closed spandrel deck arch bridge and embodies distinctive characteristics in its association with significant early advances in technology and methods of construction, specifically the use of cast in place concrete with internal steel reinforcement in a significant, load bearing structural manner.
