A major milestone in the ongoing LA River revitalization has been reached after SPF:architects announced the completion of its new Taylor Yard Pedestrian Bridge earlier this month.
Connecting an area north of Dodger Stadium known as Elysian Valley to the neighboring Cypress Park district, the bridge sits on a 42-acre former railway site and has been given the nickname ‘Rumblefish’ by its creators. The bridge takes its namesake and vibrant orange color from a lesser-known Francis Ford Coppola film that SPF:a felt reflected the same ideas of cohesion and brotherly unity expressed in its architecture and will thus serve as the most important piece of infrastructure in the larger Taylor Yard G2 River Park Project currently being undertaken by LA’s Bureau of Engineering.
Construction on the bridge began in 2019 and eventually yielded a 400-foot box-trussed span, in touch with the area’s industrial character and opposing elevations, with two cantilevered central viewing platforms arrayed in the middle to form a symbolic “handshake” that will hopefully forge a new direction for the two neighborhoods once notorious for public quarrels and gang violence.
Per the architects: “The bridge employs the lightest and most efficient structural elements possible: tube steel, wide flange steel, and steel rods. HSS steel members form rectangular openings, and the bracing of the frame is achieved by the provision of tension rods spanning diagonally in vertical planes. This hybrid frame has rigid joints that are capable of transferring and resisting bending moments, and diagonals working in tension only. The bridge also uses a redundancy system (fracture critical members) that enables the structure to carry loads in the event of a failure of one or more components. Structural elements were componentized so that larger portions of the bridge could be assembled in an adjacent yard and construction work within the riverbed could be minimized.”
The bridge and manmade island it services are part of outgoing LA Mayor Eric Garcetti’s vision to have a minimum of 65% of all Angelenos living within a half-mile distance of a park or open space by the year 2025.
“The Taylor Yard Pedestrian and Bicycle Bridge is an answer to a much-needed connection between the LA River communities of Cypress Park and Elysian Valley that creates the walkable, livable green open space our communities need,” Assemblywoman Wendy Carrillo said at the end of a public statement. “Simply put, the Taylor Yard Bridge connects people to the beautiful Los Angeles River and the river to the community.”
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