Melan Arch Bridge Eagles, (sculpture).

Melan Arch Bridge Eagles, (sculpture).

Richardson, H. H., 1838-1886, architect.

Melan Arch Bridge Eagles, (sculpture).

Eagles, (sculpture).

1887. Relocated 1912.

Digital Reference:

Eagles: granite; Bases: limestone.

4 eagles. Each eagle: approx. 60 x 46 x 24 in.; Each base: approx. 124 x 64 x 64 in.

Four eagles, flanking the approaches to a bridge, are perched with wings arched next to their bodies and heads raised and turned upward to the side. Two eagles are turned to the proper left, and two to the proper right. Each eagle is mounted upon a pier-like base of layers of cut limestone (fieldstone) built up at the ends of the approach walls to the bridge, which passes overhead.

Animal -- Bird -- Eagle

Outdoor Sculpture -- Ohio -- Cincinnati

Architectural component

Administered by City of Cincinnati, Cincinnati Park Board, 950 Eden Park Drive, Cincinnati, Ohio 45202

Located Eden Park, Melan Arch Bridge approaches, Eden Park Drive, Cincinnati, Ohio

Formerly in the collection of Zoological Society, Cincinnati, Ohio 1911-1912.

Formerly located Chamber of Commerce, Fourth & Vine Streets, Cincinnati, Ohio 1888-1911.

The eagles originally sat on H. H. Richardson's dormer windows of the Chamber of Commerce Building, built in 1888. When the building was gutted by fire on January 10, 1911, the eagles were salvaged and given to the Zoological Society. In 1912, the Society gave them to the Cincinnati Park Board for the Melan Arch Bridge, and they were placed there at that time. (The bridge is named for its designer, Josef Melan, and was built in 1895 by Melan Arch Construction Company, with Austrian engineer Fritz von Empergen.) IAS image files only contain a photo of one of the eagles, with its head turned to the proper left. For related information see: "Cincinnati: A Guide to the Queen City and Its Neighbors," Cincinnati: Cincinnati Historical Society, 1987, pg. 278. IAS files contain related excerpts from: John Clubbe's "Cincinnati Observed," Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1992, pg. 349; and, G. Giglierano and D. Overmyer's "The Bicentennial Guide to Greater Cincinnati," Cincinnati: Cincinnati Historical Society, 1988, pg. 164. IAS files contain a related section from the Cincinnati Park Board brochure "Art in the Park."

Save Outdoor Sculpture, Ohio, Cincinnati survey, 1994.

Cincinnati Park Board, "Art in the Park," Cincinnati, OH, n.d.

The information provided about this artwork was compiled as part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture database, designed to provide descriptive and location information on artworks by American artists in public and private collections worldwide.

Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture, Smithsonian American Art Museum, P.O. Box 37012, MRC 970, Washington, D.C. 20013-7012

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