sidaway bridge cleveland ohio

Cleveland's only suspension bridge is this 6 foot wide pedestrian bridge built in 1929 by Wilbur Watson. It spanned a gulley and connected two neighborhoods, Garden Valley and St. Hyacinth. During the 1966 Hough riots it was vandalized and has been barricaded ever since - a sad memorial to racial division and the decline of our inner neighborhoods.

The north terminus of the bridge is at Sidaway Avenue and Berwick, just north of the Garden Valley housing project. Across the gulley the southern terminus can be found by taking E 55 to Francis Avenue, heading east on Francis (the only possible direction), then turning left when Francis dead-ends at E67, continuing down the street past the DanDee building and turning right onto Sidaway again.

To see the Library of Congress HAER (Historic American Engineering Record) which contains photos and a detailed history go to this link:

hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/hhh.OH0010

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[swiiila]

According to "Bridges of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County" - Digital Cleveland Library, there was another bridge at this same location before the Sidaway. It says the Timber Bridge carrying the Old Dummy Line was near East 55th Street over Kingsbury Run. The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History says Wilbur Watson helped set standards for bridge construction across the country. He was designing bridges as early as 1898.

[queenoftheuniverse]

wow! More history! Thanks.

Wilbur Watson was indeed an important figure in bridge design and I wish the Lorain-Carnegie Bridge (no, I won't call it Hope Memorial!) was named for him. The rapid transit bridge at Holton and E90th is another Watson bridge. There are many in Cleveland.

Thank you again.

[dorothymwalker]

It would appear I got to this site much too late as the last comment seems to have been made about 6 months ago.

My interest is that Sidaway (Sid a way) was my maiden name and my genealogical one name study.

Some Sidaways emigrated to Cleveland in the early 1900's - they were chainmakers from the Staffordshire Cradley Heath area of England which was well known for the chainmaking industry.

The name is very common in that area of Staffordshire. Thanks for the look at this

[queenoftheuniverse]

Hi, thanks for the info. Wish I knew how Sidaway Ave got its name. Don't know much about Emigration to Cleveland from England - other than that there were immigrants from the Isle of Man that settled around the Corlett neighborhood.

[tubehead357]

Thanks for the post! I never knew the history behind the bridge. I remember a fire took place under the bridge back in the 70s. I was just in the area taking pictures.

[queenoftheuniverse]

Where are your pix? on flickr? I'd love if you'd post a link.

[BKagent22]

The Nickle Plate railroad built the Sidaway pedestrian bridge in 1929 in a, at the time, Polish neighborhood. Blacks now dominate the Kinsman side; the 65th St. side is mixed. Cleveland's only suspension bridge was damaged during the 1966 Hough Riots. (Someone set fire to it's wooden deck and ripped out 15 feet of planks.) It hasn't been used for decades. In 1955 a woman jumped from the bridge to her death. It's situated over the Kingsbury Run gully, where the unsolved torso murders occured.

[dadgenius]

Thank you for i did not know we had this!I lived in Old Brooklyn until i married, now live in what use to be Rockport(Grayton Road/I- 480).

[DanSids1988]

@katsidaway Yeah I hate it when people call me Side-away >:@

[johng7769]

my family grew up there and there are many stories of race riots on that bridge. its next to the old dan dee building right by where francis ends at 65th

[johng7769]

my family grew up there and there are many stories of race riots on that bridge.

[01tnql]

theres an article on this bridge in the book "bridges of metro cleveland" the article can be found on line

[katsidaway]

Who was he?

[MILLMOTION]

The bridge is named after my Great Grandfather.