Vital Incidentals: The Bridge and The Pergola

Main Street Bridge

   From Santa Monica’s founding in 1875 to the 1920s, Main Street ended abruptly at a deep arroyo, just south of the business district. According to Lunsford, a Second Street merchant, Erminci Gamberi, proposed that a bridge be built across the arroyo in 1917. But the bridge wasn’t built until the 1920s.
   In the 1960s, CalTrans chose, with the consent of the City Council, to locate the new Santa Monica Freeway in the arroyo. Between 1965, when the Freeway opened until now, untold millions of vehicles have rushed under the bridge on the way to the beach or into Los Angeles.
   In all probability, a far smaller number of people have actually seen the wide elegant curve of the open spandrel arch bridge. In the same way, few of the people who drive regularly over the bridge are aware of its graceful design.
   According to Lunsford, until the bridge was built, what is now the Civic Center area went undeveloped because it was so isolated by the arroyo. The construction of the bridge opened the area to development and it was soon seen as a prime location for a new Civic Center.
   In 1936, the Evening Outlook and the Santa Monica Realty Board sponsored a Civic Center Design competition. Though many entries were received, nothing came of it.