The Little Bridge That Couldn’t

The pedestrian bridge which arched over Little Patuxent Parkway is gone. One of the chief reasons given for its removal was safety. The bridge was just in terrible shape. It is being remembered and lamented by some. Its demolition has prompted at least one “Rouse in his grave” comment on social media.

For those who have legitimately fond memories of this pedestrian bridge, I offer my sympathies. As for me: I just don’t get it.

In all the time I have lived here I have never seen anyone on that bridge. (That doesn’t mean people didn’t use it, of course. I’m simply reporting my personal experience.) Nor have I ever had any reason to use the bridge.

It didn’t go anywhere I wanted to go. It didn’t connect places that I needed to be.

Overhead pedestrian walkways were all the rage when this one was built for the New American City. A bunch of them were built as a part of the Baltimore Harbor Place project, possibly by the Rouse Company. Many, if not all, have since been demolished.

Some thoughts on that: Pedestrian Bridges Make Cities Less Walkable, Institute for Transportation and Development Policy.

To my mind this particular walkway made no sense. It was intended to support an active, interconnected pedestrian lifestyle, yet what it connected was largely a sea of parking lots on either side of LPP. No amount of aspirational goodwill could overcome the inherent worship of the automobile lifestyle that is baked in to this place.

Rouse rather famously said that “cities can be fun!” but there just wasn’t anything fun (or functional) about this bridge. Perhaps there was a time when there was. I certainly can’t judge what I haven’t seen. It has hung over Little Patuxent Parkway like a monument to Columbia nostalgia for as long as I can remember.

The most vivid memory I have of that place is one associated with loss of life. It was hard for me to think of it any other way. I didn’t have nostalgic feelings for that place. If anything, I felt sadness.

Can you think of any place locally where a bridge like that would make sense? Have you ever been on foot, doing fun and interesting things, and thought: what we really need here is an overhead pedestrian walkway? Where would you put one?

Let me know.

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