After 81 years, landmark Memorial Bridge is in dire need of renovation | GRAPHIC: Memorial Bridge: A crumbling landmark – The Post
Arlington Memorial Bridge, which connects Arlington Cemetery and Northern Virginia to the Lincoln Memorial and Washington, D.C. needs significant renovation that could cost $250 million and take several years. The 81-year old span may need to be closed for several months as well.

“The bridge . . . is really at the end of, and beyond, its life cycle,” Charles N. Borders II, a Park Service transportation branch chief, said Friday.

No funding has been identified for reconstruction.

It is considered by many to be Washington’s most beautiful bridge, but few may remember it functioning as a drawbridge.

“This is as much a memorial as it is a working bridge,” James said.

Designed in the 1920s by the architectural firm of McKim, Mead and White, the 2,100-foot-long bridge has a central draw span that, in its time, was the longest, heaviest and fastest-opening in the world.

It took one minute to open, according to a Park Service historical study.

The drawbridge, or “bascule,” is 216 feet long. It’s the most complex part of the bridge and would be the most challenging part to fix, the Park Service said.

The bridge is administered by the George Washington Memorial Parkway section of the National Park Service.