CLEVELAND, Ohio — Once a vital link between the Kinsman and Slavic Village neighborhoods, the Sidaway Bridge remains closed more than half a century after an act of arson severed it in the midst of racial unrest. Constructed in 1930 and designed by Fred L. Plummer of Wilbur Watson & Associates, the 680-foot suspension footbridge connected two immigrant communities but later became emblematic of Cleveland’s deep-rooted racial divides.
“The bridge is more than a structure, it’s a symbol of a time when physical barriers were used to enforce social ones,” said Cleveland historian and community advocate Donald Freeman in a 2023 interview with The Land.
Originally replacing a wooden trestle from 1909, the Sidaway Bridge was the only pedestrian suspension bridge in Cleveland, rising up to 158 feet above Kingsbury Run. The ravine beneath it, once a makeshift encampment for the homeless during the Great Depression, later gained infamy as the dumping site for victims of the Cleveland Torso Murderer.
By the 1960s, the demographics of the Kinsman area had shifted, transitioning from predominantly Hungarian and Jewish to largely African-American. Slavic Village, directly south across the ravine, remained majority white. In 1966, during the Hough Riots, unknown vandals set fire to the bridge’s wooden planks. Rather than repair the damage, the city removed the remaining planking and permanently closed the bridge, a decision later scrutinized in federal court…