Troup-Howell Bridge - Rochester Wiki

The Troup-Howell Bridge was a bridge that carried Route 490 over the Genesee River until its replacement by the Frederick Douglass-Susan B. Anthony Memorial Bridge in 2007.

The bridge opened to traffic in 1954, and was named for the streets it originally connected. While Troup Street still exists, Howell Street has been gobbled up by the Inner Loop with only a small section still in existence. Over its life the bridge underwent four major renovations, including its incorporation into Interstate 490 in 1974. When more renovations were needed early in the millennium it was decided to replace rather than repair the structure.

"The Troup-Howell Bridge- Troubled Bridge Over Water." A history of the bridge

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2006-05-16 14:03:12 Rumor has it that the bridge will be painted some delightful shade of purple, in honor of our city flower. —MariahBetz

2006-05-16 16:25:05 Not according to the Frequently Asked Questions Q: What is the final color? A: What you see is what you get. The steel was painted with the silver/white color at the manufacturing plant. Selecting the color was one of the toughest decisions of the project! The project team collected input from the public at the Corn Hill Arts Festival one year and they relied heavily on the opinions of the projects community-based Aesthetics Committee. They decided the light color would blend in with the other buildings downtown, while not being too overpowering. —JohnLam

2006-05-16 16:56:43 But will the bridge be maintained? or become a darker shade of dirty. —MrPhil

2007-07-13 01:52:12 I heard they want to rename the troup howell bridge as a the "Fredrick Douglas/Susan B Anthony Memorial Bridge". Anyone know if this will go through? seems stupid to name a bridge after 2 people. —JohnJoseph

2007-07-13 15:45:17 Yes, that is true. There is a celebration tonight for the name change. The new name was made official after it was signed by Gov Spitzer last week. —ScottHendler

2007-07-13 20:33:25 I plan on continuing to call it the Troup-Howell, but I'm voting for "Freddy-Sue" as the un-official name. —TomMaszerowski

2007-07-14 00:49:45 Well thats pretty lame. I'm all for naming stuff after them, but atleast give them an object of their own. I'll still call it the troup howell —JohnJoseph

2007-07-14 08:18:10 So why keep the name of a bridge that no longer connects the roads for which it was named — Troup St. and Howell St.? It makes more sense as a symbol reminding us of the ties between those historical figures. —JasonOlshefsky

2007-08-25 00:03:53 I'll second the "Freddy-Sue" motion. The full name is absurdly long. —ChelseaAllinger

2007-08-25 01:15:41 In the original sketch they had purple lights underneath, shining on the water. Figures they skip the coolest feature. They should do some color changing LED lighting like they just did on the CN Tower in Toronto. :/ —DanDangler

2007-10-23 09:30:20 Instead of "Freddy-Sue" how about the "Dougie-Tony"? The "FD-SBA"? The "Doug-E-Fresh, DJ Susie" Bridge?

Knowing Rochester, I am surprised they didn't decide to change the name monthly after a local activist or pioneer. —BadFish

2007-12-11 17:08:42 A few minutes ago I was listening to 98PXY (forgive me) and they said, swear to God:

"Traffic is backed up on the FREDDY-SUE BRIDGE. What's the Freddy-Sue Bridge? Well, it's the Frederick Douglass-Susan B. Anthony Memorial Bridge and that's too long so we were going to shorten it to Douglass-Anthony Memorial, or DAM, bridge so that we could say, 'Traffic's backed up on the DAM bridge,' but, ya know..."

Freddy-Sue it is! —ChelseaAllinger

2007-12-11 18:04:35 I like Freddie Sue as well! —BadFish

2009-05-31 20:51:46 Did you see the insulting graffiti sprayed onto the top girder on this bridge — driving east on Route 490, I saw the words "Rochester sucks" and then a few words after these two which I missed as I had to keep on driving. I reported it to the NYS Department of Transportation and I hope they will paint over these offensive words. I am shocked, positively shocked, that someone was able to CLIMB the bridge and make this graffiti — I looked on the D&C website to see if anyone had been caught and arrested for this public defacement, but nothing has been mentioned. Does anyone know? —ChristopherLehfeldt

2009-06-05 00:34:50 Holly Maynard mentioned it on WHAM 13 —PeteB

2009-06-05 19:41:38 Also saw the graffiti today... If you're going to risk your life to do something like that, at least don't say something so dumb and juvenile. I was so upset today to see that some asshole did that to our fine bridge! —BatGuano