Large Public Art Piece Utilizes Steel Salvage from historic Rogers Bridge

“There is a lot of room for interpretation,” Averbuch said. “I’m sure that everybody that sees it will see something slightly different. But, if you look at it from the front, you will see this bridge in the background crossing over the new bridge. I want it to be a celebratory piece … that represents the effort of different groups of people on both sides of that big arc.”

New York-based artist Ilan Averbuch was selected to repurpose the historic Rogers Bridge steel for public art to celebrate the connection between Johns Creek and Duluth.

The Johns Creek City Council chose Averbuch for the large commission art piece. The proposed sculpture will measure approximately 18 feet tall by 34 feet long by 12 feet deep.

The City Council set aside $50,000 of Tourism Product Development funds for the project, and Fulton County Commissioner Liz Hausmann secured $150,000 in Fulton County’s fiscal year 2022 budget. Over the summer, the City Council set aside an additional $50,000.

Averbuch said in a phone interview he spent a significant amount of time reading about the history of the area, the cities of Johns Creek and Duluth and all the players involved before submitting a proposal. What makes this project fun, he said, is getting to sort of relive the history of what happened.

The steel pin truss bridge was built in 1912 to span the Chattahoochee River, linking what is now Johns Creek to Duluth. It was named after the Rogers family, who operated a ferry system that transported cotton over the river. Abandoned in the 1960s, the crossing fell into disrepair.

After years of partnerships and planning, in November 2019, the Johns Creek City Council approved an intergovernmental agreement with Duluth, Fulton County and Gwinnett County to replace the bridge and allow visitors to traverse from Rogers Bridge Park in Duluth to Cauley Creek Park in Johns Creek.

In their unanimous approval, the City Council expressed excitement about re-establishing pedestrian and cycling connectivity across the Chattahoochee River. The groundbreaking was held on March 29, 2021, followed by countless work session discussions to determine how Johns Creek could reuse its half of the salvaged material, or approximately 5 tons of steel, to speak to its historical significance.