Edmund Pettus Bridge
National Historic Landmark · Selma, Alabama
A steel arch bridge carrying US-80 out of Selma over the Alabama River, opened in 1940 and named for a Confederate brigadier general who later led the Alabama Ku Klux Klan. On 7 March 1965 about six hundred people walked over its crest towards Montgomery to demand the vote and were beaten back by state troopers at the far side, in front of television cameras. The footage ran that night, the Voting Rights Act was signed five months later, and the bridge kept the name. It is free, it still carries traffic, and you walk it in about ten minutes.
Broad Street at the Alabama River, Selma, Alabama, 36701, United States
A public highway bridge — open at all hours, free, with pavements on both sides. The Selma Interpretive Center at its foot is National Park Service, free, and keeps daytime hours. The bridge closes to traffic for the Bridge Crossing Jubilee on the first weekend of March.
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