The Street Seen: Main Street Bridge
Main Street @ Colorado Ave
Discussed for many years and finally built in 1926, the Main Street Bridge at Colorado Ave connects the north Third Street and south Main Street business districts. The bridge is an important precursor to the widening of Main St in Ocean Park. The bridge also makes the location of the current City Hall viable. The City-owned bridge remains as it was built in 1926, although the 2nd and 3rd St ramps have been altered to accommodate changes on Colorado Ave.
No Man’s Land
In the 1900s, the property between Colorado Ave1 and Pico Blvd, from 4th St to Ocean Ave, is occupied by building material supply and railroad yards.2 The large, undeveloped area in the middle, owned by the Southern Pacific, is known locally as “No Man’s Land.”
Arroyo
Santa Monica’s two commercial districts are separated by an arroyo3 (now the location of the I-10 Freeway). Main Street is the commercial street in south Santa Monica (Ocean Park). The primary business district of the north, 3rd Street, dead ends at Colorado Ave. A bridge4 across the arroyo has been discussed for many years.5
In 1918, a plan for a combined extension of both 2nd and 3rd Streets across No Man’s Land to Main Street6 in Ocean Park is approved, and an assessment district is created to fund it. With City Special Ordinance No. 404, the project is put out for bid in May 1925.
Main Street Bridge
The Main Street Bridge is a single-span reinforced-concrete open-spandrel arch bridge. The distinctive features are its supporting arches, spandrel columns, and the ornamental balustrades.
Contractor Kneen breaks ground in August 1925, and the Main Street Bridge7 opens in May 1926.
Bridge Opening
The City goes to great lengths to celebrate the formal opening of the bridge on May 26, 1926. The joining of north and south Santa Monica is symbolized by a mock wedding on the new bridge. Preceded by a band, the bride (Ms. South Side) accompanied by the Mayor, arrives on the bridge at 8 pm.
Afterward, a huge wedding cake is served, and the band plays. Roy Jones (1869 – 1947), son of Santa Monica founder John P. Jones, speaks. There are fireworks, and the burning of a 12-ft effigy representing all of the enmity, malice, and ill will of the past between north and south Santa Monica.
Main Street
Kneen’s 1925 contract also calls for paving of a new street (with Main St as its chosen name) across No Man’s Land connecting Colorado to Pico. This new street makes possible the location of the new City Hall - planned in 1928, but delayed by the Depression and finally built with WPA funding in 1937.
Sears and I-10 Freeway
In 1947, the Patton & Davies Lumber yard on the corner of Colorado and 4th St is replaced by a Sears Roebuck department store.
After the Southern Pacific ceases passenger operations, the Santa Monica Air Line uses the tracks until 1935, when Olympic Blvd goes under the Main St Bridge. In 1966, with the construction of the I-10 Freeway, Olympic Blvd is rerouted. West of 4th St, the I-10 Freeway connects to SR-1, which goes under the Main St Bridge.
3rd Street Mall and Santa Monica Place
In 1965, the 3rd Street Mall is created, and 3rd St is closed to traffic between Broadway and Wilshire Blvd.
In 1980, the City establishes a 10-acre redevelopment district between Broadway and Colorado from 2nd St to 4th St, and Santa Monica Place is built. 3rd St, between Broadway and Colorado, is absorbed into the project. Colorado Ave remains a 2-way street.
In 2015, Colorado Ave is made one way (westbound), and the Main Street Bridge ramp to 3rd St is removed.
80-ft-wide Railroad Ave, established with the Town of Santa Monica Tract of 1875, is renamed Colorado Ave in 1902.
The northeast corner of No Man’s Land is occupied by a Patten Davies Lumber yard; the east center by Olsen Lumber yard; the southeast corner by the Braun, Bryant & Austin paving yard and the Belmar neighborhood in the Bandini Tract; and the center section along Ocean Ave is occupied by the Scotts Addition subdivision.
In practice, it is the railroad tracks running along the arroyo (and the Railroad Commission) that are the greatest barrier to a north-south route across No Man’s Land.
The Main Street Bridge should not be confused with the Ocean Ave bridge - on Ocean Ave and directly south of Colorado Ave. It is still possible to ride a January 1898 Southern Pacific train as it passes underneath the old wooden Ocean Ave bridge to the Pacific Ocean - Going Through the Tunnel. In 1902, the old wooden bridge is replaced by a double-arch reinforced concrete bridge.
The 1902 Ocean Ave bridge is replaced by the McClure Tunnel in 1936.
The reinforced concrete bridge from Ocean Ave west over the Pacific Coast Highway to the Santa Monica Pier is constructed in 1939 as a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project.
The main demand for a north-south route across No Man’s Land comes from north side merchants. 3rd St merchant, Erminio Gamberi (1860 – 1942), is a vocal proponent. A 1913 proposal to extend 3rd St from Colorado to 3rd St in the Bandini Tract is deemed too expensive due to the need to gain sufficient elevation over the Santa Monica Air Line tracks. A 1915 proposal to extend 2nd St from Colorado to Main St also fails due to the issue of crossing over the Air Line tracks.
2nd and 3rd Streets are 80 ft wide, and the narrowness of Main St (already congested) south of Hollister Ave is a concern.
Suggestions for a name for the new bridge are made, and in 1926, the newspapers refer to it as the Arcadia Bridge (presumably referencing Arcadia Bandini), but there is no official naming, and it goes by the name Main Street Bridge.