| Jones Bridge (I) | |
|---|---|
| Carries | Vehicular, streetcar and pedestrian traffic |
| Crosses | Pasig River |
| Locale | Manila, Philippines |
| Designer | Juan Marcos Arellano |
| Design | Neoclassical arch bridge |
| Material | Concrete |
| Number of spans | 3 |
| Piers in water | 5 |
| Constructed by | American colonial government in the Philippines |
| Construction begin | 1916 |
| Preceded by | Santa Cruz Bridge (now McArthur Bridge) |
| Followed by | None |
| Closed | 1945 |
| Replaces | Puente de España |
| Jones Bridge (II) | |
|---|---|
The present Jones Bridge in 2008 |
|
| Carries | Vehicular and pedestrian traffic |
| Crosses | Pasig River |
| Locale | Manila, Philippines |
| Designer | Unknown |
| Design | Girder bridge |
| Material | Concrete |
| Number of spans | 3 |
| Piers in water | 2 |
| Constructed by | U.S. Bureau of Public Roads and Philippine Bureau of Public Works |
| Construction begin | 1945 |
| Preceded by | MacArthur Bridge |
| Followed by | Del Pan Bridge (renamed as Roxas Bridge) |
| Replaces | Jones Bridge (I) |
| Coordinates | same as Jones Bridge (I) |
Jones Bridge is a bridge that spans the Pasig River in the city Philippines connecting the districts of Binondo on Rosario Street (Calle Rosario, now Quintin Paredes St) with the center of Manila. The previous bridge that connected the two districts was the Puente Grande (Great Bridge), later called the Puente de España (Bridge of Spain) located one block upriver on Nueva Street (Calle Nueva, now E. T. Yuchengco St), the span considered to be the oldest established in the Philippines.
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After the floods of the September 1914 damaged Puente de España, construction of a replacement bridge was started in 1916 by the American Colonial government, one block downriver from the original location. It was named as Jones Bridge after former Virginia Rep. William Atkinson Jones, who was the principal author of the Philippine Autonomy Act of 1916. The Neoclassical design by Juan M. Arellano was an ornate concrete arch bridge. The entrances to the bridge were bordered by pillars topped with statues.[1] The bridge was destroyed by the bombs of World War II.[2][3]
After the war, the bridge was reconstructed by the U.S. Bureau of Public Roads and then Philippine Bureau of Public Works under the Philippine Rehabilitation Act of 1945.[4] Carrying the name of the bridge, the new span was a simple bridge with metal pole railings, bare in design. The design features from the old bridge that survived the war, were moved to other locations in Manila.[5] One of the statues that was previously set on top of one of the pillar at the entrance to the bridge was moved to Rizal Park.[6]
Jones Bridge was once hailed as Manila's queen of the bridges. Some recent improvements on the current bridge were the addition of street lamps and replacing the old pole railings with stone railings reminiscent of the first Jones Bridge.[7]