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Cemeteries, Monuments, and Bridges (2.5)

Significance (2.5.2)

Cemeteries, monuments, and bridges are significant in Elizabeth City because they are highly visible elements of the built landscape and were necessary in the functioning of the city. Bridges are critical to the city's surface transportation systems; without them, the city would be divided by three creeks and cut off from Camden County to the east. The cemeteries are significant not only as the final resting places of many of the city's illustrious persons, but as important illustrations of funerary--and by extension also religious and decorative--traditions of the past. In a city without a historic system of urban parks for passive leisure, the cemeteries, particularly the larger ones with their canopies of trees, offer a measure of park-like tranquility. Most bridges and cemeteries are significant primarily because of the associations with their surroundings and neighborhoods. Some may also be significant because of their landscape architecture, artistic qualities, or engineering as well as their historical associations.