It's an iconic symbol of Rhode Island — so much so that it is the singular image chosen to represent the state on our quarter. It's been here for almost 50 years, so many of us don't remember the days when a trip from Newport to Jamestown included a little bay cruise.

For 300 years, that was the only way to get from Jamestown to Newport — but that ferry service ended the day the bridge opened: June 28, 1969.

Born as Mr. Ricci's dissertation — he earned a PhD degree in Humanities from Salve Regina University last year — the subject came to him as he considered one of the central themes of his course of study: how to be human in an age of technology.

"I wanted to do something local, something about Newport," said Mr. Ricci. "It struck me because it has always been a difficult place to get to. The bridge was built so late, especially considering the Jamestown Bridge was built in the 1940's. I thought there was a story there."

There was, and it turns out there was a human side to the story; it wasn't all about technology.

The most interesting fact about the whole thing, as Mr. Ricci found, may have been how Rhode Islanders received the idea of building a bridge over the East Passage in the first place.

"They didn't want it," he said. "The first vote failed."

It's a story with three heroes, who had to leap (in several bounds) political, regulatory, and engineering hurdles. One was then-Governor John Chafee, who championed the project. Another relentless champion was Gerry Dwyer, the chairman of the Rhode Island Turnpike and Bridge Authority. Finally, there was Alfred Hedefine, chief engineer with Parsons Brinkerhoff, the engineering and design firm that executed the project.

Of the many design innovations, the most notable was probably that the construction of the Newport Bridge featured, for the first time, main cables fashioned from parallel-wire strands that were fabricated offsite; in the past, the cables were created onsite during construction.

The Newport Bridge only took a handful of years and $61 million to construct. The project, however, took a generation, for a wide range of reasons that constitute the human side of the story. First, World War II put everything on hold. Later, the project proved controversial, most of the reasons why which boiled down to two issues: where will it go, and how will we pay for it. It was up to Gov. Chafee and Mr. Dwyer to navigate through the political and bureaucratic weeds, and get the public on board.

Ultimately, voters needed to approve 5 separate funding referendums to get the job done.

A lot of the controversy involved finding a landing spot in Newport. The Navy, which was a major presence in Middletown in the 1960's, opposed a Middletown option that would have had significant impact on their base.

The neighborhood where it ended up — the Point neighborhood — was thickly settled with historic homes, several of which had to be torn down, to the dismay of local preservationists. The public was split.

Mr. Ricci is grateful to the Providence Public Library, which has a stack of index cards with dates and page numbers of virtually every Providence Journal article written about the Newport Bridge over the years. Those articles proved to be an invaluable record of events as well as a reflection of public opinion throughout the process. "So now I had a way to find out what those controversies were," he said.

"Chafee received many, many letters from influential people, mostly opposing," said Mr. Ricci. "He responded to every one." Ultimately the Navy "won" and the Point "lost", although fears that Newport, which by the 1960's was in dire need of urban renewal, would "wither on the vine" cast that verdict into question. In light of the city's reemergence as a premier destination, you have to wonder what the impact would have been, had that traffic been diverted north to Middletown.

Ultimately, the Newport Bridge would become, along with Colt State Park, one of the accomplishments of which John Chafee was most proud throughout his long political career. When the bridge was finally opened in June of 1969, the Newport Daily News ran a story with a lede that evoked the city's gilded age past and heralded its revival as "America's First Playground."

"The Newport Bridge was presented to society today," it read.