Monroe Street Bridge
Monroe Street Bridge, 1919
Then
The Monroe Street Bridge pictured replaced a previous bridge which had been washed away by a flood in 1878. The current bridge was built in 1908 by the C.W. Dean Company of New York. The bridge is made up of three equal elliptical arch spans, and featured a decorative railing with vase-shaped balusters.
More information about the previous bridge and the construction of the present one can be seen at bridgesnyc.com.
Monroe Street Bridge, 2011
Now
The Monroe Street Bridge has been repaired extensively over the years. In 1947 guide rail was added to the curbs, and new concrete curbs followed in 1948. Many repairs to the substructure were made using gunite (a dry form of shotcrete) in 1949. Large parts of the balustrades were missing or badly damaged, and they were replaced by a more utilitarian railing sometime after Bergen County did a survey the bridge in the early 1980s.
New Jersey’s 2002 survey of the bridge deemed that it had lost much of its “visual integrity” due to the nature of the gunite repairs (NJDOT [PDF]).