I recently visited the new Sixth Street Bridge, connecting Downtown’s Arts District with Boyle Heights.
For the City the new $588 million bridge is a big deal. Besides its intended iconic appearance, it will feature a 12-acre park underneath with soccer fields, fitness facilities, basketball and volleyball courts, a dog park, a playground and picnic areas. An arts plaza and amphitheater with a performance stage and a terraced viewing area will be added to the west side. Completion is scheduled for 2024.
Entering the bridge[1]What’s the difference between a bridge and a viaduct? It seems to depend on who you ask. But a bridge connects two points of land over a water body, such as a river, canal or lake. A viaduct is … Continue reading on its first day of use from the west side, I overheard one nearby resident tell his friends about the new addition. “This is meant to be a crown jewel of the city, up there with the Hollywood Sign, and when everything’s finished it’ll be like L.A.’s High Line,” he said, referencing the former train tracks turned into an elevated linear park on the West Side of Manhattan.
“Most importantly,” he added, his voice now a little softer, “it will raise property values.”
Indeed, there’s already been concern that this type of greed will spill over to East L.A., raising property values but displacing long-time residents.[2]While there’s understandable concern raised about gentrification, there has been little concern raised by media outlets like the L.A. Times that cover the matter about the tactics, often … Continue reading
First impressions
My visits spanned several trips and each time I took in something new.
The first visit, the first full day of official use,[3]This was July 10. The previous viaduct was demolished in 2016 and construction on the new one began that same year. was imbued with a palpable pride. Nearby residents, often in family clusters, happily strolled the arched concrete expanse. It all felt new, the concrete pristine. Cars filled up the outer lanes, stopping to take photos or socialize.
Another visit, its first Friday in use, felt different.
There was a real laissez-faire vibe to the place. In theory—people not oppressed by excessive rules and the presence of authority—that could be a good thing. But things that night felt unsteady, bordering on lawless.
A high-speed drone nearly hit me before crashing into pieces on a nearby column, fireworks were spontaneously lit, people in cars blared music, screeched tires and riders hung precariously out their windows. Traffic stopped and a scene formed. Cops eventually moved people along before closing the bridge altogether.
Presenting challenges?
It’s perhaps an unpopular topic these days but it shouldn’t be: The City will have a real challenge policing the bridge. There seems a real reluctance to do that at present.
While that’s understandable, the question becomes how to get it to feel safe for all those who want to access it yet without an excess of police presence on and around what should be a benign community fixture.
One officer I spoke with said they currently had only a handful of cops to work the .6-mile bridge. They’d had to shut the bridge down on two prior nights because of people in cars peeling donuts in the middle of it. He and his colleagues, he said, already felt quite outnumbered.
The bridge also presents safety challenges. Pedestrians are corralled into narrow enough walkways and if something dangerous were to happen they would not have easy access to exit the bridge.
So to what extent does the City worry about it becoming a popular destination for thrill seekers, suicides or protests?
The look
The Sixth Street Bridge was designed by architect Michael Maltzan and the HNTB Design-Build team and contractors Skanska and Stacy and Witbeck. With its 10 pairs of arches varying from 30-60 feet in height, it infuses the city with some new shape, lines and texture. And once lit up, as it was opening night, it will also provide a nice dose of color.
Its arches flowing in succession bring a sense of much-needed linear connectivity to a part of the city that has long felt too divided between Downtown and East L.A.
The Bridge also creates vertical connection from its top to its flats.
There are times, especially by day, when the Bridge feels less like a ribbon of light than an industrialized ribbon of cables and concrete, albeit one that’s built to withstand the occurrence of a 1,000-year (or 9.0 magnitude) earthquake.
This industrial feel, however, is not without relevance. The entire surrounding area, lest the overflowing hipsterism of DTLA blind us t the fact, is industrial. Its about still more bridges, plus power lines, railroad tracks, warehouses and tank cars. For me there’s a strange, embraceable beauty there and the bridge provides an integrated, reverential perspective of that.
The Sixth Street Bridge may or may not be a game changer for Los Angeles. But that need not be the point. The City has provided its residents with a thoughtfully designed public space that is free for all to use, providing equal parts utility and leisure. It’s now up to its people to help it reach its potential.
Notes, etc.
| ↑1 | What’s the difference between a bridge and a viaduct? It seems to depend on who you ask. But a bridge connects two points of land over a water body, such as a river, canal or lake. A viaduct is commonly a long structure, often with arches in a series, designed to traverse primarily land, in this case train tracks, freeways, city streets and a semi-arid river. The current structure seems technically a viaduct and, in its early days at least, nominally a bridge. |
|---|---|
| ↑2 | While there’s understandable concern raised about gentrification, there has been little concern raised by media outlets like the L.A. Times that cover the matter about the tactics, often racially tinged and threatening violence, used to thwart it. |
| ↑3 | This was July 10. The previous viaduct was demolished in 2016 and construction on the new one began that same year. |