Paterson Great Falls Bridge
Paterson Great Falls Bridge, 1918
Then
A bridge connecting Spruce Street to Front Street across the Passaic River above the Great Falls existed from at least 1895; a map of Paterson from that year shows the crossing (located near the "7"). The crossing has often been called the Spruce Street Bridge.
The Passaic River floods often, and one of its greatest floods occurred in 1903 (detailed in The Passaic Flood of 1903 by Marshall Ora Leighton); nearly every bridge in Paterson was destroyed, but there is an account of a man headed toward the Great Falls being rescued as he passed under the bridge, so presumably the structure survived.
Paterson Great Falls Bridge, 2012
Now
Little information is available about the current bridge. Its location differs somewhat from the original Spruce Street Bridge: instead of connecting with Front Street, the crossing now connects with Wayne Avenue. The current structure was built in 1984. In February of that year, the Associated Press reported that the structure then standing, built in 1932, would have to be replaced. A concrete guardrail had fallen into the Passaic, and a subsequent inspection showed that the bridge’s supports had shifted so much that replacement was necessary.
In March of 2011, the Passaic River once again flooded. Bridges over the river have been built stronger than those that were swept away in 1903, but many of them were under too much water to be passable. The Wayne Avenue Bridge was the only bridge in Paterson to remain open during the flood.