The “Guardians of Traffic,” four double-sided figural pylons rising more than 40 feet above either end of the Hope Memorial Bridge, have connected Cleveland’s east and west sides since 1932. They were designed by architect Frank R. Walker and lead sculptor Henry Hering. More than 20 immigrant stonemasons, many from the Italian village of Oratino, carved the figures at Ohio Cut Stone Company on Random Road from sandstone quarried in nearby Berea. The Italian sculptors lived or worshipped in Cleveland’s Little Italy. Each hand-carved Guardian holds a different vehicle to portray the history of ground transportation. In 1936, the American Institute of Steel Construction voted the bridge and its Guardians “an outstanding architectural triumph,” and in 1976 they were added to the National Register of Historic Places.
