Jones Bridge

Jones Bridge
Jones Bridge at sunset
Coordinates	14°35′45″N 120°58′38.3″E / 14.59583°N 120.977306°E / 14.59583; 120.977306
Carried	Motor vehicles, pedestrians and bicycles
Crossed	Pasig River
Locale	Manila, Philippines
Official name	William A. Jones Memorial Bridge
Other name(s)	Banzai Bridge (c. 1942)
Named for	William Atkinson Jones
Maintained by	City Government of Manila Department of Public Works and Highways - North Manila District Engineering Office[1]
Preceded by	Binondo–Intramuros Bridge
Followed by	MacArthur Bridge
Characteristics
Design	Neoclassical arch bridge (1919–45) Girder bridge[2] (1945–present)
Material	Steel-reinforced concrete
Total length	115 m (377 ft)[1]
Width	16.70 m (54.8 ft)[1]
Traversable?	yes
Longest span	300 m (984 ft)[3]
No. of spans	3
Piers in water	2
Load limit	20 t (20,000 kg)
Clearance below	7.5 m (25 ft) at mean tide[4]
No. of lanes	4 (2 per direction)
History
Designer	Juan M. Arellano (1919–20)
Constructed by	City Government of Manila (1919–20) Philippine Bureau of Public Works (1920, 1945) U.S. Bureau of Public Roads (1945)
Construction start	1919
Construction end	1920
Inaugurated	1921
Rebuilt	1946
Collapsed	February 1945
Replaced	Puente de España
Location

The William A. Jones Memorial Bridge, commonly known as the Jones Bridge, is an arched girder bridge that spans the Pasig River in Manila, Philippines. It is named after the United States legislator William Atkinson Jones, who served as the chairman of the U.S. Insular Affairs House Committee, which had previously exercised jurisdiction over the Philippines and was the principal author of the Jones Law that gave the country legislative autonomy from the United States. Built to replace the historic Puente de España (Bridge of Spain) in the 1910s, the bridge connects Quintin Paredes Road in the Binondo district to Padre Burgos Avenue in the Ermita district.

Originally designed by Filipino architect Juan M. Arellano using French Neoclassical architecture, the first incarnation of the bridge features three arches resting on two heavy piers, adorned by faux-stone and concrete ornaments, as well as four sculptures on concrete plinths allegorically representing motherhood and nationhood. The original bridge was destroyed during World War II by retreating Japanese troops and was reconstructed in 1946 by the U.S. and Philippine public works. The reconstructed bridge retained the three arches and two piers but removed all the ornaments. The bridge was first partially restored in 1998. In 2019, the City Government of Manila began a rehabilitation project to "restore" the Jones Bridge to its near-original design using Beaux-Arts architecture similar to that of Pont Alexandre III in Paris and the return of the three extant La Madre Filipina sculptures (the 4th requiring reconstruction).