It may seem contradictory for an historian to advocate for the replacement of one historic bridge while defending another. But, in this City of Bridges, that’s what I am doing. Explaining why is an opportunity to state the value proposition for historic preservation, and history education itself, which is the Jacksonville History Center’s mission.
As has been reported in most local news channels, a grass roots task force has begun meeting informally to gather information and stimulate interest in replacing the John Mathews Bridge, which connects downtown with the Arlington Expressway. At 73 years old, the Mathews Bridge remains structurally sound and certainly qualifies as historic, and it helps tell an important story about Jacksonville’s postwar growth surge. Like the Arlington Expressway, the bridge continues to carry cars, trucks and buses, serving local as well as transient motorists. Both are also instantly recognizable as artifacts of the late 1940s and early 1950s, when both the bridge and the expressway were conceived and designed. Indeed, the late State Senator, and later Florida Supreme Court Justice, John E. Mathews (1892-1955) began advocating for the present bridge as early as 1938.
As was the case then, a new bridge connecting Jacksonville’s downtown to Arlington and points east will be a generational project. The cost is unknowable, and even if it were, no funding sources for it exist. But all of those things were true in 1938, and yet the community lined up alongside determined leadership and carried the day. The lesson of history for us to draw in the 21st century is this: when we recognize ambitious things that need and deserve to be done, we should be undeterred by their difficulty. Instead, we should be persistent, audacious, organized and farsighted.
A different historic bridge in downtown Jacksonville is now going through the process of being listed on the National Register of Historic Places, to call attention to its significant past and its role as the most prominent public icon of Jacksonville’s identity. The Main Street Bridge, opened in 1941, was the second vehicular bridge to span the St. Johns River at Jacksonville, Florida. Its four travel lanes carry thousands of cars and trucks each day on U.S. Highway 1, as well as pedestrians crossing between downtown’s north and south banks. Its intricate, blue-painted steel trusses and gently arched profile, together with its distinctive vertical lift mechanism, make it the most instantly recognizable shape on the River City’s skyline. Named in honor of John T. Alsop, Jr. (1874-1958), Jacksonville’s longest-serving mayor, the Main Street Bridge is the oldest automotive bridge still in service on the entire 310-mile length of the St. Johns River.
Comparing these two historic bridges is to try comparing apples and oranges. The Mathews Bridge carries far more vehicles every day, but is dangerous for pedestrians. Its narrow traffic lanes are over 7000 feet in length, with no breakdown lanes. At its maximum height of 152 feet above the river, an accident or stalled vehicle can back traffic up well into downtown or Arlington, preventing first responders from reaching the scene. Motorists forced to exit their cars on the bridge have no safe refuge. On September 26, 2013, a ship struck the center span of the Mathews Bridge, damaging it sufficiently to require a total shutdown for over a month while emergency repairs took place, with enormous impacts on motor traffic.
Preserving anything historic only makes economic sense if it can be adapted to the present and the future. The Mathews Bridge in 2026 is sturdy and functional, much as it was when it opened in 1953. But in 2026 we would design and build an entirely different structure to connect the east and west banks of the St. Johns River at this crucial point. History teaches us that we must adapt to change, which is constant in the life of a city and its people. Taking lessons from the past, making sense of them in the present and putting them into the service of the future is why Jacksonville’s history matters. That’s why there is a Jacksonville History Center.
Alan J. Bliss, Ph.D. | CEO, Jacksonville History Center