One Nurse’s Campaign
On former grandeur. A weekly installment of a photo chronicle by Avi Stachenfeld about a congressional race in California’s Central Valley.
The largest city in Stanislaus County, Modesto was founded in 1870 along the railroad connecting Southern and Northern California. When highway traffic between Los Angeles and Sacramento necessitated an efficient crossing of the Tuolumne River, the city invested in a grand state-of-the-art bridge. The 7th Street Bridge, or the Lion Bridge, opened in 1917 to much fanfare and is still hailed as a unique example of period engineering: a cantilevered concrete structure. Four art-nouveau lion statues greeted travelers entering from the north and south sides. Not unlike the beloved New York Public Library pair, the lions symbolized power, success, and high aspirations.
“Conformity with environment, economic use of material, pleasing outline and appropriate use of ornament make toward beautiful bridges, which are a sure indication of a progressive community,” wrote John Leonard and William Day, consulting engineers for the 7th Street Bridge (The Concrete Bridge, 1913).
The statues are now crumbling, after decades of neglect. The Lion Bridge, overlooking a mobile home park and a littered riverbank, is slated for demolition by 2020, to be replaced by a utilitarian four-lane bridge, value-engineered by Caltrans.
In 2017 Forbes ranked Modesto 170th (out of 200) in the Best Places for Business and Careers, closely followed by other Central Valley cities such as Merced, Stockton, and Bakersfield. What has gone wrong in Modesto? Has the city and its residents been neglected by their representative in Washington? What opportunities are being missed? Who will work toward a bold progressive vision for the district where the lions roar?
