It was closed in 1992 when the adjacent Jamestown–Verrazano Bridge, approximately 400 ft to the north, opened for traffic. The old Jamestown Bridge has been declared a hazard to navigation by the U.S. Coast Guard, and must be removed.

PAL assisted the Rhode Island Department of Transportation by preparing cultural resource components of the required environmental documentation in compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the project required the completion of surveys of aboveground and terrestrial and underwater archaeological historic properties. The PAL project team attended public meetings, participated in the consultation process, and prepared a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) that detailed the activities required to mitigate the adverse effects of the demolition of the bridge on historic properties. PAL also prepared mitigation documentation that included a historic and photographic record of the bridge.

The Jamestown Bridge (RI Bridge No. 400) was completed in 1940 to connect the town of North Kingstown and the island of Jamestown across the West Passage of Narragansett Bay. At 6,892 ft long it is Rhode Island’s second longest bridge. It incorporates 69 spans of varying design including a massive continuous cantilever Warren truss with a 600 ft wide center span 135 ft above the water. Planning for a bridge at this location began as early as 1933 and was spurred by the Hurricane of 1938, which wiped out West Passage ferry service. The noted bridge engineering firm Parsons, Klapp, Brinckerhoff and Douglass, which also designed the Cape Cod Canal Railroad Lift Bridge, won the engineering contract. The bridge was completed in18 months on an accelerated schedule. The bridge was important during World War II as a link between area military bases including the U.S. Naval Training Station in Newport and the Quonset Naval Air Station in North Kingstown, as well as several coastal defense batteries.

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