Dead Bridge

Lit for movie filming. (Click image for full size.) © William Anthony

If this remote area of downtown has an icon, it's the Sixth Street Viaduct. Seen in countless car commercials and motion pictures, it's the visual center of film shooting in this area. It's not uncommon to see the parking lots below it packed with grip trucks, hotlights and support trailers.

And it's going to be destroyed.


Viewed from the Fourth St. Bridge. (Click image for full size.) © William Anthony

According to recent studies, this bridge has a 70% chance of "failing" in a large earthquake in the next 50 years. Reason is the bridge has a cancer known as "Alkali-Silica Reaction" (ASR) that is causing it to slowly crumble from the inside out. It's the only one of the twelve bridges that span the L.A. River near downtown to suffer from ASR. Engineering reviews have shown the best solution is not retrofit, but demolition and re-construction. So no matter what, this bridge—this icon—will be gone.


From the river basin. (Click image for full size.) © William Anthony

New bridge options are now being considered. But the sad truth is a piece of art deco history is quietly going into the sweet hereafter. Which is, in sorts, a harbinger for this neighborhood. The signs of this area changing rapidly are in the air. The building I live in and many like others like it have become an engine for change and growth in these parts. We hear we're a "neighborhood in transition." I just hope that Los Angeles, unlike my former Seattle, manages the change properly and chooses to retain some of the rich history of this area over the quick profit.


From the bridge deck. (Click image for full size.) © William Anthony

In the meantime, I think I'll continue to photograph this bridge as much as I can until it's gone.