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Originally Posted by PhilliesPhan
I never realized how beautiful the Walnut Street Bridge used to be. Both the old Walnut and Chestnut Street Bridges were elegant spans that connected Center City and West Philadelphia.
The old Chestnut Street Bridge and the current Market Street Bridge, along with the fact that I visited Paris last year on a study abroad trip and was able to experience the beauty of the Seine and all of its river crossings during a Seine River cruise, is exactly why I brought up bridges. As you also mentioned, east bank of the Schuylkill is going through a renaissance. The west bank may go through one with the full build-out of the envisioned 30th Street District, since a pedestrian walkway straddling that part of the river is planned. If CC and UC are going to continue to become unified, one way to make the Schuylkill seem like a feature of the two CBDs instead of a barrier is through its bridges. I am way more inclined to walk across the Market Street Bridge than either JFK, Chestnut, Walnut, Spring Garden, or Girard. The pedestrian experience of walking across the bridge is what will help sow the two districts together.
Additionally, I think that the Schuylkill River could have some excellent potential for river cruises from Fairmount Dam to Bartram's Garden. Better bridges are a surefire way to improve that experience, similar to what I experienced in Paris last year.
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You don't have to go remotely as far afield as Paris to see that beautiful bridges are (or could be) a major tourist asset. I mean, people do river cruises in New York, Chicago, and Pittsburgh for much the same reason.
And yes, I agree: there is no reason at all the Schuylkill shouldn't be spanned by a succession of beautiful bridges all the way from Manayunk to Girard Point. The money spent investing in their beautification would be more than recouped marketing them as a tourist destination in their own right.
BTW the first Spring Garden bridge:
It was washed away in a flood, and would be replaced by this bridge for the Centennial Exposition:
Interestingly enough, its cast iron arches fell off around the fin de siècle, revealing the truss span holding it up.
