![]() ![]() The guardians have been frequent subject matter for another local artist, Paul Duda. While the structures are also often reffered to as Guardians of Transportation, officially they are the Guardians of Traffic, Grawbowski said. Ultimately, they were cleaned in the 80s, and remain highly visible today at the entrance to downtown. “The bridge had gotten old, they were dirty,” Grabowski said. The bridge was completed in 1932, but by the 1970s the Guardians of Traffic were threatened with calls for demolition. Stonemasons pose with one of the guardians And if you look around Cleveland then and now, I mean you’re not going to find any representational art that is that large,” Grabowski said. “They are monumental structure, they are figures that rise above the actual structure. Each guardian holds a different mode of transportation in his hands. Stonemasons carved eight Art Deco figures in Berea sandstone on four pylons located at the corners of the bridge. Watson, architect Frank Walker and sculptor Henry Hering. The bridge’s design team included civil engineer Wilbur J. “In the 1920s when the city was booming, its traffic problems were exacerbated, and so there was a bond issue passed and construction of the bridge began in 1929, just before the crash.” ![]() “There were calls for a bridge going back to 1903,” Grabowski said. “They produced a structure that I think was memorable then and memorable now,” said John Grabowski, editor of the “Encyclopedia of Cleveland History” and a history professor at Case Western Reserve University. The bridge’s guardians are icons for the city, imagined nearly a century ago, when Cleveland was the fifth largest city in the nation. “They’re beautiful but challenging to shoot,” Sadowski said.Ĭhristina Sadowski captures photos of the Guardians of Traffic on an early Sunday morning On a recent Sunday morning, Sadowski headed out onto the bridge to snap some new images of the guardians as the sun rose over the city. That kicked off a love for Cleveland imagery, which has continued with the guardians playing a major role. She first photographed them about 10 years ago for a class project while a student at Baldwin Wallace University. “There’s something about them that people just love, and it says home to them,” she said. Images of the guardians appear on everything from posters to T-shirts to shower curtains.Īrtist Christina Sadowski sells a variety of guardian-inspired pieces, including pillows, yoga leggings and charm bracelets. As the season starts this month, the Cleveland Cavaliers will hang a new banner featuring a mosaic of fan photos in the shape of one of the Guardians of Traffic. One of the latest spots is as a replacement for LeBron’s image on the banner that hangs on the Sherwin Williams building outside Quicken Loans Arena. Images of the larger-than-life Art Deco statues above Cleveland’s Lorain-Carnegie Bridge are popping up all around the city. It helps explain why the team made its choice. Ideastream Public Media's Carrie Wise examined the history and popularity of the Guardians in this 2018 piece. ![]() The inspiration for that name comes from the iconic "Guardians of Traffic" on the Lorain-Carnegie Bridge, not far from Progressive Field where the team plays. Editor's note: Cleveland's Major League Baseball team has announced it will change its name to the Guardians after the 2021 season. ![]()
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