walking the 9 bridges of Los Angeles River

I joined the folks from Big parade LA and did an epic 14 mile walk that covered all 9 bridges that span the Los Angeles River in the down town area. We congregated at the metro chinatown station.

Before we headed out, we took a little detour to see a recent archeological find – construction crew of a development site unearthed a aqueduct from the 1781. You can read about it here and here

  – heading on to North Broadway street bridge

 – details of the North Broadway street bridge

 – the view of North Broadway street seen from Spring Street bridge

  – view of downtown from Spring Street Bridge which is under repair

  – view of Spring Street Bridge from Main Street

– Main Street bridge is also under repair – seen from Spring Street

  – where a railroad use to run

 – from Main Street we cross into Boyle Heights.  The awesome USC Medical center building.

  – Cesar Chavez Street Bridge has the most ornate pylon

  – a little detour into Union station which recently celebrated it’s 75th anniversary

  – Below the First street bridge

  – the metro gold line now runs on it

  – First Street bridge pylon

 – back in Boyle Heights again

  – heading on to Forth Street Bridge

 – Forth Street Bridge seen from the river bed looking north.

 – Forth Street Bridge pylon

 – View of 6th Street Bridge from Forth Street Bridge

 – 6th Street Bridge seen from Santa Fe Ave

 – 6th street bridge is a very long one which extend over not just the river, but several railroad tracks, the 101 and several local streets.

 – saying good bye to 6t street bridge (or “viaduct” to be correct..)- this will be demolished in early 2015.  The concrete is deteriorating and will be replaced with a new design – hopefully before the big one hits! The project website with the new design is here

  – the 7th steet bidge seen from the river bed

 – details of 7th street bridge

  – a train use to run through this bridge.  Now home to several drug addicts, there are talks to convert this section into a restaurant

 – and finally crossing the Olympic Blvd Bridge – you can see the sears building.

we did not get to the Washington Blvd Bridge

Here is the map of the route taken