He’s starred in more car chases than Vin Diesel, more stunt scenes than Tom Cruise, and more music videos than Madonna, and yet he didn’t even have to audition for a role. Jumping across the Los Angeles River over its twin steel arches, supported by its majestic Art Deco concrete pillars, the Sixth Street Bridge has provided a backdrop for shooting and dancing since it was built in 1932. appearing in everything from Grease to Terminator 2 and providing a dose of urban glamor in videos from around the world, from Kanye West to Kid Rock.
But the Hollywood crossroads no longer exists. It was demolished in 2016 after being diagnosed with a terminal case of concrete cancer: the sand used in the mixture turned out to have a lethally high alkali content, reacting with the cement to cause expansion and cracking. In the 2010s, officials estimated that the bridge had a 70% chance of collapsing in a major earthquake over the next 50 years.
The idea of crossing the river seemed too small. As one engineer put it, “What happened to making a car on Sunday?”
“Every time it got wet,” says Michael Maltzan, “it basically turned into jelly. Which isn’t ideal for a bridge over a river.” The architect is on top of the structure he has designed to take his place: a nearly $ 588 million-long new viaduct, the largest infrastructure project the city has ever built. For a decade, the bridge will open this summer, connecting downtown LA with the East Boyle Heights neighborhood, its wider deck now incorporates more generous bike lanes and sidewalks, with its concrete arches now securely supported on seismic absorbers, allowing it to move up to 30 inches in any direction.
Best way … the big car showdown in Grease started under LA’s beloved landmark. Photo: You Tube
“But the real challenge,” says Maltzan, “was like coming up with something as iconic as the original.” Because the Sixth Street Bridge is not only loved by the show. It was one of the last bridges built across the river by the Engineering Office in the 1920s and 1930s under Merrill Butler, who saw the crossings as majestic civic monuments, a linear symphony in the sculptural possibilities of reinforced concrete. From Glendale in the north to Long Beach in the south, they were designed in styles ranging from neoclassical to Spanish colonial, streamlining the modern and Gothic renaissance, each adorned with benches and balconies where people could rest and enjoy panoramic views. . Sixth Street was the grandest of the lot, with its slender double arches dotted at each end with transcendental pylons decorated with fluted zigzags.
“I thought the two arches were important to remember,” says Maltzan, whose “light ribbon” concept, designed with HNTB engineers and Hargreaves Jones landscape architects, won an international competition in 2012. “They were very “But the idea of crossing the river seemed too small. The infrastructure has a responsibility to cross the social, economic and cultural divisions, and we wanted the bridge to reflect that.”
Maltzan has taken the twin arches and multiplied them by five in the 3,500-foot-long, jumping along railroad tracks and roads as the viaduct moves east. The result is almost surreal: seen from both ends, it looks like the trail of two balls bouncing, ping-pong through the valley, the arches rise to different heights as they jump.
Come with me … Arnold Schwarzenegger tore under the famous bridge, and many others, at Terminator 2. Photo: Tristar / Sportsphoto / Allstar
Being LA, there are several freeways to cross before the bridge gets close to the river, which is more of a drip in a concrete ravine. From the east, it straddles I-5 before reaching US-101, where the first pair of arches rises 40 feet to form what looks like an entrance gate. Then come five pairs of 30-foot arches, pass through a low-rise warehouse neighborhood, and then touch the first set of train tracks that flank the river. Here two pairs of arches rise to 60 feet, forming a symbolic echo of the original structure.
“We were inspired by the idea that the movement in LA is so cinematic,” says Maltzan, who describes its 20 arches as “portals” framing scenic views of the city, with the intention of making it a pleasure to cross in. himself. not just a way to get you from A to B. “As one of the engineers said, ‘What happened to a trip on Sunday?’
“I hope everyone vomits with their artisanal sweets,” a gentrification protester said at the site where the bridge lands.
Despite the busy traffic, LA’s highways still have a special place in the city’s psyche. In the more innocent 1970s, British critic Reyner Banham said driving here was “a special way of being alive”, putting you in “a heightened state of consciousness that some locals find mystical”. The highway, he concluded, was where the Angels “spend the two quietest and most rewarding hours of their daily lives.”
These two hours may have doubled, or even tripled, but the car window is still the main lens through which many experience the city. Drivers may be stuck, but at least the views (from the towers of the city center to the west, from the San Bernardino Mountains to the east) will be elegantly framed by Maltzan’s gymnastic arches, which of some way they have LA in their DNA, reminiscent of the winding supports of the LAX Airport space-era themed building. Those who ride bicycles, meanwhile, will have the pleasure of spiraling down a corkscrew ramp to a new 12-hectare park, which will begin construction under the viaduct this summer.
The largest of the big ones … the original Sixth Street Bridge that crosses the LA River. Photo: Citizen of the Planet / Alamy
Some residents of the east side, however, have wondered who exactly this park is for and what impact the bridge will have on the area. “It doesn’t look like it’s designed for our community,” says Kenya Alcocer of Union de Vecinos, a neighborhood group in Boyle Heights. “We welcome green spaces, but it seems like a plan for more gentrification, which attracts other people to come here instead of focusing on the needs of the people.”
The bridge is less than a mile long, but the two places it connects are separate worlds. To the west is the Arts District, on the edge of the formerly cluttered city center that is now an exclusive enclave of galleries, restaurants and luxury apartments, all within walking distance of Skid Row’s homeless camps. . From where the bridge lands is an advanced Dover Street Market haute couture chain site and a restaurant serving wagyu rib steak for $ 160. Trade with the artistic cache of the area (although most artists have reduced the price) the land under this side of the bridge will have a “plaza de les arts”, with a stage and seats on the terrace for performances .
Boyle Heights, meanwhile, has long been a low-income Latino neighborhood, a place for mom and pop shops, taco stalls, and musicians still congregating around Mariachi Plaza. In recent years, it has been at the forefront of the city’s gentrification battles, as hipster real estate expands eastward to receive an icy reception.
“I hope everyone vomits on your artisanal treats,” was a response to a real estate agent who took clients on a bike tour of the neighborhood in 2016. “Don’t stay out of my fucking hoodie.” another. Some galleries that were moved to the Flats, the warehouse district under the bridge, have been discovered. Their premises have been spray-painted and some have received anonymous death threats. But Alcocer fears his withdrawal will be only temporary.
“A double-edged sword” … the new bridge, known as the Ribbon of Light, at dusk. Photo: Sipa US / Alamy
“The new bridge and park will see them come back stronger,” he says, “if we don’t get organized and step back.” Grocery stores, laundries, and wholesale food stores have been replaced by breweries, cafes, and cannabis stores, he adds, while forced evictions have skyrocketed, and owners want to attract the new group. deeper pocket demographic. “They are looking for us for our culture,” says Alcocer, “but we ourselves are not wanted. People who move here want mariachis murals and street stalls, but not people. We are just accessories to add real estate value. “
Bridge promoters insist the park has been developed with the local community in mind. It will have picnic areas and barbecue areas next to playgrounds, football fields and basketball, volleyball and futsal courts, a Latin American version of futsal.
“The bridge is not the engine of gentrification,” says Maltzan, “but it is a double-edged sword. It will inevitably pay more attention to this area, and when a neighborhood becomes visible, developers always come in.” The city, he says, has a history of building infrastructure that was designed to connect communities, but ended up doing just the opposite, dividing neighborhoods into silos.
“LA has always presented itself as a multicultural city,” he adds, looking back on the extent of its creation. “But it really is a city of many separate cultures, which is very different. I hope the bridge has a role to play in weaving. “