The historic Talbot Avenue Bridge connected Lyttonsville, a historically Black community founded in 1853, and North Woodside, where racist deed covenants once prohibited Black people from living in the neighborhood except as domestic servants, for over a century until the bridge’s demolition in June 2019 to make way for the Purple Line. In May 2024, the new Talbot Avenue Bridge opened.
The steel girders of the historic Talbot Avenue Bridge were constructed from an overturned B&O Railroad turntable. The girders have been preserved and when construction of the Purple Line is complete, they are to be used to create a Bridge Memorial in the future Lyttonsville Neighborhood Park and to help educate county residents about the history of Lyttonsville and racial segregation in the county. The future park will be located at the intersection of Talbot Avenue and Michigan Avenue, a block south of where the historic bridge once spanned the train tracks and where the new Talbot Avenue Bridge now exists.
For more information about “The Bridge” see two short documentary films:
For further information about the history of Lyttonsville (aka Linden) see:
- My Linden, My Lyttonsville (56 min, by Curtis Crutchfield, 2024) Documentary features interviews with over two dozen current and former community residents and others, and draws parallels between the experience of living in Lyttonsville/Linden and in other small Black communities in the county, such as Scotland and Emory Grove. Includes footage of recent bridge-related events, e.g. 2023 Lantern Walk and 2024 new bridge opening.
Talbot Avenue Bridge Community 