Opened in 1964, the Clifton Park Bridge connects the cities of Rocky River and Lakewood. It is a section of Clifton Boulevard and the Grand Army of the Republic Highway (U.S. Route 6). The bridge crosses the Rocky River very close to where it empties into Lake Erie.

The Clifton Park Bridge was built by the State Highway Department to alleviate the congestion on the Detroit Rocky River Bridge. The project, however, was not without controversy. The seizure of private property through eminent domain was eventually required in order to build the bridge. Apart from angering the affected citizens, this measures would also mean that each city would lose the money from the property taxes on those sites. The tax issue led to a more than ten-year-long dispute between the cities of Rocky River and Lakewood as the two sides could not agree on the location of the bridge. Rocky River supported the location even though the city would lose tax money. Lakewood on the other hand opposed the location because the bridge would go through the wealthy Clifton Park neighborhood on the northwestern side of the city and cause $1.5 million worth of property to be lost to eminent domain.

Other plans were proposed, such as increasing the traffic on the Hilliard Road Bridge and turning the Nickel Plate trestle into a double-decker bridge for both train and car traffic. The Hilliard Road Bridge plan was highly favored and carefully discussed. The basic question at the center of this debate was whether or not cities had the right to refuse the building of a major highway. This is also known as the "ordinance of consent." In the end, eight homes and fifteen other parcels of land were seized by the state under eminent domain in order to build the bridge with both cities losing valuable property. The Clifton Park Bridge was thus built by the state of Ohio over the objections of the local governments.

The unique curving streets of Clifton Park distinguish it from the rest of Lakewood's grid pattern. It was built starting in the late 19th century and features many historic mansions. It has been the home of many of greater Cleveland's most prominent citizens. Despite Lakewood's fears, the Clifton Park neighborhood continued to thrive even after the Clifton Park Bridge controversy, remaining alive and well even today.

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The Detroit–Rocky River Bridge spans the Rocky River and connects the cities of Rocky River and Lakewood. Prior to 1819, Rufus Wright operated a ferry that carried Rockport residents across the Rocky River. He was a tavern owner as well. Wright later became Lakewood's second postmaster. His sons followed in his footsteps and members of the Wright family were the city's postmaster for several generations.

In 1819, the construction of the first Detroit–Rocky River Bridge began, with Wright paying half the cost. Each of the 18 resident families contributed money, labor, or materials. The bridge was completed in 1821, but crossing it required a hazardous descent and ascent along the river's slippery embankments. The bridge was so dangerous that in November 1848, two stagecoaches capsized on the bridge. Travelers were advised to avoid the Detroit–Rocky River Bridge and instead go along the beach to ford the river.

In 1850, the old bridge was replaced by a toll bridge made by the Detroit Plank Road Company. The new bridge made for slightly safer approaches. It was again replaced in 1875 with a wood and iron girder bridge before an even safer bridge was built in 1890. This high-level truss bridge with an oak plank floor and built of iron and stone avoided the embankments altogether. It was toll-free but cost taxpayers $60,000 to construct.

As electric interurban railcars began plying the bridge on the Lake Shore Electric line between Cleveland and Toledo in the early 1900s, the bridge's safety was soon at issue. On May 13, 1905, an interurban car derailed on the bridge and came perilously close to plunging into the gorge. As a result, a fifth bridge, built of concrete and steel, was completed in 1910. The latest Detroit–Rocky River Bridge was the longest stretch of unreinforced concrete in the world at the time, measuring 208 feet.

The current bridge was built in 1980 for $4 million. Today, the Bridge Building at 18500 Lake Road, built atop the western foundation, stands on the only remaining section of the 1910 bridge.

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R. Guy Cowan opened Cowan Pottery on Nicholson Avenue in Lakewood in 1912. The studio produced mainly architectural tiles, but also made a line of vases and bowls called "Lakewood Ware." Work from this period can be found in the East Cleveland Public Library and in some private homes. During World War I, Cowan closed his studio to serve in the army.

In 1920, after Cowan's return from the war, the pottery studio moved to 19633 Lake Road in Rocky River. The pieces produced at the Rocky River studio shifted the focus of the pottery towards commercial production. Cowan had a staff of skilled artisans and in the mid-1920s some other established artists came to work at the pottery. Some were not trained in ceramics and had to be convinced by Cowan to try their hand. Others were students of Cowan at the Cleveland Institute of Art. Artists such as Elizabeth Anderson, Thelma Frazier Winter, and Viktor Schreckengost worked at Cowan Pottery between 1920 and 1931.

During the twenties, Cowan Pottery was popular and successful, with Guy Cowan using his awards and national recognition to advertise the pottery. His work was sold in most major cities in the US as well as a few retailers in Canada. However, in 1931 Cowan Pottery began to feel the effects of the Great Depression and Cowan could no longer pay his employees or bills. The pottery closed that December.

Most of the buildings that housed Cowan Pottery in Rocky River still stand today, and a museum devoted to the pottery can be found in the Rocky River Public Library. Viktor Schreckengost's line of Jazz Bowls, originally created for Eleanor Roosevelt, can be seen in many museums, including the Cleveland Museum of Art.

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Authorization for the Hilliard Road Bridge in Lakewood was given in 1923, along with approval for the Willow Bridge in Newburgh. The Walsh Construction Co. of Cleveland was contracted to build the bridge. The project was completed 19 months later at the cost of $930,000. Once completed, the Hilliard Road Bridge provided a vital link between Cleveland and outlying farms, and also helped the West Side expand and develop into a series of well-populated communities.

Since the Hilliard Road Bridge project was the largest construction project in the area in years, it was watched closely by organizations of both sides of the labor debate. The unskilled workmen who built the Hilliard Road Bridge came from all over the Midwest but especially from Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, and Kentucky. They were paid 40 cents an hour which was less than union pay. Workers and their families were housed on the construction site in buildings of pine lumber which a Plain Dealer reporter in 1924 described as being similar to military cantonments during the First World War. The construction site was also surrounded by fences of barbed wire. Picketers set up camp at either end of the bridge and protested at starting and quitting times. Signs carried by protesters decried the lack of unionized labor of the project and asserted that working conditions were unfair to the "organized workers of Cuyahoga County." This continued for over a month.

The Hilliard Road Bridge was not the first bridge on this spot. The earliest incarnation of the bridge was known as the "Swinging Bridge," and consisted of a rope bridge with wooden planks that was used by school children and Lakewood residents to cross the Rocky River. It hung thirty feet above the water and was located at the end of Detroit Avenue in what is now the Rocky River Reservation. It remained in place until the 1910s.

One Lakewood resident, Kathryn Coleman, recalls a particularly memorable experience on the Swinging Bridge when a mischievous boy began to jump up and down, causing the bridge to swing wildly, while she and her family were trying to cross. "I was 7-years-old at the time and walking beside my mother. In front of us, father was pushing a baby stroller that held my 1-year-old brother. We were frantic, but we finally made it across. Afterwards, mother vowed we would never use that bridge again."

The current Hilliard Road Bridge crosses the Rocky River and runs above the Rocky River Reservation. It is 860 feet long, and the length of the largest span is 220.2 feet. It was rehabilitated in the early 1980s, during which the deck was replaced. It reopened in 1983.

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