US 80, MP 85.415, Selma, Alabama. County/parish: Dallas.
Added to the National Register of Historic Places February 27, 2013. NRIS 13000281.
The Edmund Pettus Bridge carries U.S. Route 80 Business (US 80 Bus.) across the Alabama River in Selma, Alabama, United States. Built in 1940, it is named after Edmund Pettus, a former Confederate brigadier general, U.S. senator, and state-level leader ("Grand Dragon") of the Alabama Ku Klux Klan. According to Smithsonian, "The bridge was named for him, in part, to memorialize his history of restraining and imprisoning African-Americans in their quest for freedom after the Civil War". The bridge is a steel through arch bridge with a central span of 250 feet (76 m). Nine large concrete arches support the bridge and roadway on its east side.
The Edmund Pettus Bridge was the site of the conflict of Bloody Sunday on March 7, 1965, when police attacked Civil Rights Movement demonstrators with horses, billy clubs, and tear gas as they were attempting to march to the state capital, Montgomery. The marchers crossed the bridge again on March 21 and walked to the Capitol building.
The bridge was declared a National Historic Landmark on February 27, 2013.
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