The first measure of a bridge’s usefulness is its use; how many times a day do people or vehicles cross it? By this measure, there is likely no more useful bridge over the Genesee River than the Frederick Douglass-Susan B. Anthony Memorial Bridge.
The bridge carries the 490, the part of the interstate highway system that courses through downtown Rochester and is the main east-west artery for people living in the area. Completed in 2007, one web site stated that an estimated 26,680 vehicles crossed the bridge daily at that time (I can’t help but note, in passing, that I love such precise “estimated” figures–why say “about 27,000” when you can say an estimated 26,680). The engineers who built the attractive, steel-arched structure that opened in 2007, state that it carries 50,000 cars in each direction daily. Now that’s a nice round number I can appreciate!
The bridge is suspended from three arches that measure more than 400 feet in length. An article on the bridge’s engineering also notes the attention paid to the bridge’s appearance as well. The designers intentionally provided good views of downtown, and they also tried to make the underside of the bridge aesthetically appealing, with rounded floor beams and varying depths, as there would be pedestrian walkways under both sides of the bridge. I think they succeeded, and I admired the engineering and design as I walked around the bridge.
Since the bridge is not open to pedestrians I had to content myself with exploring it from below, rather than above. The west side of the bridge is in the Corn Hill neighborhood, which when we moved to this area in 1998 was a trendy area. It seems to have stalled somewhat in recent years, though the underside of the bridge was providing shelter for at least one homeless person.
The east side of the bridge is more lively, with the Roc City Skatepark. The skatepark has to be one of my favorite additions to the Rochester landscape in recent years. Unlike top-down initiatives doomed for failure such as the current renovation of Carroll Plaza and the Sister Cities Bridge that I wrote about earlier, the skatepark grew organically from organizing done by the skateboarding community in Rochester. Starting in 2008, Friends of the Roc City Skatepark began working towards building it, and in late 2020 their efforts succeeded, only to have it shut down not long after because of COVID. It eventually reopened, and I’ve driven by some evenings and seen hundreds of people there. When I visited in February, members of the community were there clearing off snow, and one skater was already testing it out.
Both the current structure and the Troup-Howell Bridge that it replaced were named after significant Americans. Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony are familiar to most people for their work crusading for the abolition of slavery and the rights of Black people and women. They knew each other well in life and are both buried at Rochester’s Mt. Hope cemetery. They were generally friends and allies in reform, though they did have a falling out after the Civil War when Susan B. Anthony felt that Douglass betrayed the cause of women’s suffrage in order to advance civil rights for Black Americans.
If Anthony and Douglass are well known to most people, Troup and Howell (the namesakes of the earlier bridge on this site) are less so. Robert Troup was Alexander Hamilton’s college roommate, a revolutionary war soldier, lawyer, and ultimately land agent for Sir William Pulteney, helping to settle much of the area around Rochester. In his biography of Hamilton (that inspired Lin-Manuel Myranda’s musical of the same name), Ron Chernow describes Troup as, “… insecure and prone to hero worship. Bright and jovial, favored with an easy laugh, he idolized his gifted friends and came to enjoy the odd distinction of being a confidant of both Hamilton and Burr. In one letter, Burr referred to Troup fondly as “that great fat fellow” and said another time, “He is a better antidote for the spleen than a ton of drugs.”” As far as I can remember, Troup never made it into the musical. Nathaniel Howell was also a lawyer who worked on behalf of land speculators, in his case the Holland Land Company, and he had a distinguished judicial career and served one term as a Federalist representative in Congress.
No matter who the bridge is named after, I think it’s a beautiful addition to downtown Rochester. Gracefully modern, it offers a delightful counterpoint to the many nearby historic bridges. And on a sunny day, it truly sparkles.
Bridges of the Genesee River 
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