A project to rehabilitate the Edmonston Drive bridge will include the reinstallation of a plaque dedicated to a Maryland soldier who was one of the first casualties of the Korean War.
The plaque, dedicating the bridge to Cpl. John C. Brown, was hit by a vehicle and knocked from its granite base near the intersection with Rockville Pike in late January. A city maintenance crew later recovered it.
The bridge, over the CSX Corp. and Metrorail tracks just east of Rockville Pike, is scheduled to undergo repairs later this year. The repairs are expected to last eight months and will include major repairs to the bridge’s underside and minor repairs to its topside. The topside repairs will require single-lane closures to the three-lane bridge and intermittent sidewalk closures. Repairs will cost $1.3 million, with the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Administration sharing some of the construction costs.
As part of the project, the plaque will be more prominently displayed on a pedestal closer to the bridge, which connects Rockville Pike to the Twinbrook neighborhood.
Brown, who was from Baltimore, had no direct connection to Rockville. According to the Maryland Historical Trust, the bridge was dedicated in his honor on Aug. 26, 1950, after Ernie Tannen, a Silver Spring radio broadcaster, suggested dedicating the new bridge in honor of Brown, the first Korean War casualty from Maryland. The original bridge was demolished to make way for Metrorail construction. The bronze plaque was moved to its former location near Rockville Pike in 1981, where it sat until earlier this year.
For more information, contact John Hollida, 240-314-8526 or jhollida@rockvillemd.gov.