One of the features of walking in Los Angeles (and I know it’s not unique
to LA but it seems both more pronounced and more appropriate here than anywhere
else I’ve ever been) is that you’re seldom far from a freeway. As a serious pedestrian you regularly have to
walk over or under one. Over is
generally better, I think, because you can look down and watch the traffic flow,
or more likely grind to a halt, “bummer to bummer,” as we like to say.
And as I observe my fellow bridge pedestrians (who admittedly are not
huge a number most of the time) I find that they’re divided into two varieties:
those who stop for at least a moment or two and look down, and those who stride
swiftly across the bridge, keeping their eyes fixed straight ahead of them, as
if pretending the freeway isn’t there.
Will it surprise you that I’m one of those who tends to linger, and yes
it sometimes feels a bit contrarian to be up there staring down at traffic, but
then I think that people are perfectly happy to stand on a bridge that crosses
a river and watch the boats go by, so why aren’t they happy watching the cars
and trucks? One answer might be “pollution”
and of course I have no rebuttal to that, but you know it’s not like I pull up
a deck chair and sit there for hours, basking in the exhaust fumes, I just stop
for a minute or two, enjoying the rush and the roar below me.
In fact there are quite a few places in LA where you can stand on a
bridge and actually stare down at the river, although unfortunately the Los Angeles
River tends to be a dry concrete channel for much of its length; great for car
chases and such, but not exactly a roaring cataract.
Still. I do like looking at the river – and I especially like looking
at the way the graffiti have been cleaned up – painted over with white oblongs,
creating a bizarrely appealing minimalist art work.
And if you’re on a bridge in downtown Los Angeles, chances are you’ll
also get a view of a railway line or two.
It’s like looking at God’s model railway.
Elsewhere you can look down and see all kinds of edgeland mess and
complication, ruin, reclamation and repurposing, which of course I love.
I was
doing this most recently because I wanted to take a look at the Sixth Street
Bridge, which runs from downtown to Boyle Heights and is about to be demolished
and replaced. Nobody particularly wanted
this to happen: the current bridge isn’t that old, built in 1932, but it’s
suffering from “concrete cancer” and will be gradually taken down before it
falls down, and a whizzy new bridge, described as a “ribbon of arches” will be
put in its place.
The
new one will cost $440 million and according to Councilmember
José Huizar, in whose district the project is happening, it won’t just be a way
of getting from one place to another, but “a destination itself that people
come to visit."
To that end it will have ten-foot wide walkways and
(wait for it) a viewing deck. Just how
many people will want to walk between Boyle Heights and downtown L.A. remains
to be seen. Completion is due in
2018. How many will want to stand on the
viewing platform and look down at the river and the railway line is even less
knowable, but personally I think it’s very much to be encouraged.
