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All the United States Ohio Cleveland Sidaway Bridge

Sidaway Bridge

The ruins of the suspension bridge hang over Kingsbury Run as a ghost of racial prejudice.

Cleveland, Ohio

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Sidaway Bridge in winter.   Erik Drost/CC BY 2.0
Sidaway Bridge.   Nitram242/CC BY 2.0
The abandoned Sidaway Bridge.   Erik Drost/CC BY 2.0
Sidaway Bridge in winter.   Erik Drost/CC BY 2.0
Through the summer foliage   ski queen / Atlas Obscura User
Drone shot of the Sidaway Bridge by Aerial Agents   agent 81 / Atlas Obscura User
Sidaway Bridge. 2020   Naturaclaimed / Atlas Obscura User
Sidaway Bridge East Side   GraveAdventures / Atlas Obscura User
A photograph while visiting seven different Atlas Obscura mapped destinations.   skateohio88 / Atlas Obscura User
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The only suspension bridge ever built in Cleveland was also the victim of 1960s racial conflict. Though this pedestrian bridge still stands today, it has not been usable in more than 50 years.

The Sidaway bridge was built to span the Kingsbury Run valley and connect Kinsman and Jackowo, two ethnically European neighborhoods on Cleveland's east side. The original bridge, built in 1909, was replaced by a suspension bridge in 1930 when railroads required more clearance.

Around the same time, Kingsbury Run became infamous as the site where four dismembered bodies of the "Cleveland Torso Killer" were discovered. The "Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run" was never found.

The area only gained more disrepute. In 1966, racial tension boiled over with riots in the Hough neighborhood. By this time, the population in Kinsman had become predominantly Black. Schoolchildren from Kinsman used the Sidaway Bridge to cross over to an elementary school in Jackowo. During the riots, someone ripped up planks and set the bridge on fire in a symbolic and physical attempt to keep Black children out of white schools.

The city decided to close the bridge rather than repair it. Cleveland's failure to reopen the bridge was later cited as evidence in the case that led to the forced desegregation of the city's schools. Over 50 years after its partial destruction, the Sidaway Bridge still stands as the only suspension bridge in the city's history, and an unintended reminder of segregation in the Cleveland.

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Abandoned Bridges Ruins Infrastructure Racism

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The Sidaway Bridge runs from Sidaway Avenue to Berwick Road. It is blocked off at both ends, with overgrown shrubs on private property obstructing the view. The best way to get a clear (though fleeting) view of the bridge is by looking southeast from an eastbound RTA red, green, or blue line train, just east of the E. 55th Street station.

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Rick Jennings

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Molly McBride Jacobson, ski queen, skateohio88, GraveAdventures...

  • Molly McBride Jacobson
  • ski queen
  • skateohio88
  • GraveAdventures
  • Naturaclaimed
  • agent 81

Published

February 7, 2017

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Sources
  • https://clevelandhistorical.org/items/show/762#.WIaBRlMrL4U
  • https://roadtrippers.com/us/cleveland-oh/points-of-interest/abandoned-sidaway-avenue-foot-bridge
Sidaway Bridge
6698 Sidaway Avenue
Cleveland, Ohio
United States
41.479982, -81.642815
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