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Photo, Print, Drawing Edmund Pettus Bridge, U.S. Highway 80 spanning the Alabama River, Selma, Dallas County, AL Selma To Montgomery National Historic Trail

View 4 images in sequence.
[ Drawings from Survey HAER AL-209  ]

More Resources

[ Data Pages from Survey HAER AL-209  ]
[ Photo Captions from Survey HAER AL-209  ]

About this Item

Title

  • Edmund Pettus Bridge, U.S. Highway 80 spanning the Alabama River, Selma, Dallas County, AL

Other Title

  • Selma To Montgomery National Historic Trail

Names

  • Historic American Engineering Record, creator
  • Pettus, Edmund Winston
  • Stephenson, Henson
  • Alabama State Highway Department
  • Trotter, J. P.
  • T.A. Loving Company
  • Nashville Bridge Company
  • Christianson, Justine, transmitter
  • Lowe, Jet, photographer
  • Historic Preservation Fund (HPF) Grant, sponsor
  • U.S. National Park Service (NPS), African American Civil Rights (AACR) Grant Program, sponsor
  • Georgia Institute of Technology, School of Architecture, contractor
  • Auburn University, McWhorter School of Building Science, contractor
  • Willkens, Danielle S., project manager
  • Liu, Junshan, project manager
  • Alathamneh, Shadi, field team
  • Haley, Heather, field team
  • Dunn, Madeline, field team
  • Page, Sarah, field team
  • Parks, Jake, field team
  • Bajaj, Simran, field team
  • Langsdorf, Carly, field team
  • Li, Botao, field team
  • Rangel, Patricia, field team
  • Somsundaram, Aishwarya, field team
  • Burt, Richard, field team
  • Hebert, Keith, field team
  • Gaddis, Elijah, field team
  • Buchanan, Meghan, field team
  • Cordie, Leslie, field team
  • Finkel, Robert, field team
  • Olsen, Darren, field team
  • Marston, Christopher H., editor
  • McPartland, Mary, transmitter

Created / Published

  • Documentation compiled after 1968

Headings

  • -  steel arch bridges
  • -  civil rights
  • -  transportation
  • -  African Americans
  • -  through trusses
  • -  concrete arch bridges
  • -  Alabama--Dallas County--Selma

Latitude / Longitude

  • 32.40536,-87.018485

Notes

  • -  Significance: The Edmund Pettus Bridge, a pivotal structure in American modern civil rights movement history, is located in Selma, Alabama. It was constructed 1938-1940 and opened May 25, 1940. It spans the Alabama River and serves as a major approach to the City of Selma along US Route 80. The bridge was designed by Selma-born engineering (1821-1907) Henson Stephenson (1897-1978) and named after Edmund Winston Pettus, a Confederate general and Alabama senator, who also served as a grand dragon in the Alabama Ku Klux Klan. The bridge was built by the Alabama State Highway Department, with J.P. Trotter as the bridge engineer. The T. A. Loving Company of Goldsboro, North Carolina, served as the general contractor, and the Nashville Bridge Company of Nashville, Tennessee, was the steel contractor. The bridge's historical significance is deeply rooted in its association with the events of March 7, 1965, known as "Bloody Sunday." On this day, peaceful civil rights demonstrators were brutally attacked by state troopers as they attempted to march from Selma to Montgomery. This incident, televised and widely reported, played a crucial role in raising national awareness about the struggle for civil rights and directly contributed to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The bridge's role in these events led to its eligibility for National Historic Landmark (NHL) designation under Criterion 1 , and it was officially designated as an NHL in 2013.
  • -  Survey number: HAER AL-209
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1938-1940 Initial Construction
  • -  National Register of Historic Places NRIS Number: 13000281, 05000650

Medium

  • Photo(s): 6
  • Measured Drawing(s): 4
  • Photo Caption Page(s): 1

Call Number/Physical Location

  • HAER AL-209

Source Collection

  • Historic American Engineering Record (Library of Congress)

Repository

Control Number

  • al1351

Rights Advisory

Online Format

  • image
  • pdf

Rights & Access

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For information about reproducing, publishing, and citing material from this collection, as well as access to the original items, see: Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record/Historic American Landscape Survey (HABS/HAER/HALS) Collection - Rights and Restrictions Information

  • Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on images made by the U.S. Government; images copied from other sources may be restricted. https://www.loc.gov/rr/print/res/114_habs.html
  • Reproduction Number: ---
  • Call Number: HAER AL-209
  • Access Advisory: ---

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Historic American Engineering Record, Creator, Edmund Winston Pettus, Henson Stephenson, Alabama State Highway Department, J. P Trotter, T.A. Loving Company, Nashville Bridge Company, et al., Lowe, Jet, photographer. Edmund Pettus Bridge, U.S. Highway 80 spanning the Alabama River, Selma, Dallas County, AL. Selma Alabama Dallas County, 1968. editeds by Marston, Christopher H, translateds by Christianson, Justinemitter, and Mcpartland, Marymitter Documentation Compiled After. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/al1351/.

APA citation style:

Historic American Engineering Record, C., Pettus, E. W., Stephenson, H., Alabama State Highway Department, Trotter, J. P., T.A. Loving Company [...] Olsen, D., Lowe, J., photographer, Marston, C. H., ed. (1968) Edmund Pettus Bridge, U.S. Highway 80 spanning the Alabama River, Selma, Dallas County, AL. Selma Alabama Dallas County, 1968. Christianson, J. & McPartland, M., transs Documentation Compiled After. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/al1351/.

MLA citation style:

Historic American Engineering Record, Creator, et al., photographer by Lowe, Jet. Edmund Pettus Bridge, U.S. Highway 80 spanning the Alabama River, Selma, Dallas County, AL. ed by Marston, Christopher H, trans by Christianson, Justinemitter, and Mcpartland, Marymitter Documentation Compiled After. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/al1351/>.