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San Diego FootbridgesWalking Across the San Diego Footbridges
My cousin Larry and I have been going to San Diego for eons. He was born there. His dad was born there. His grandfather was born there. Our great- grandparents were born there.....no, not really but they moved there in the mid 1800s. Now, do you think anyone ever told us about the hanging bridge? Or even the old trestle bridge? The Spruce Street Suspension Bridge is a real live hanging bridge. It's the only one in San Diego. It was constructed in 1912 so people could reach the trolley line on the other side of the canyon. You can't really get it swaying that much (believe me-my cousin and I tried) but if you stand still out in the middle, you can feel it moving when people walk across.
Nope, I'm not going to talk about the zoo. Don't get me wrong. It's a cool place and the baby panda is way cool. But most everybody knows about it. I'm aiming for the more unknown attractions. Like another one of those old San Diego footbridges nobody bothered to tell us about. Over on Quince, just a few blocks away from Spruce Street, the Quince Street Footbridge looks all rickety and spindly. It's not though. It's been restored. Originally, it cost $805 to build. It cost $250,000 to restore it! Wow! Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars!!
The Vermont Street Bridge is a newer San Diego footbridge. It replaces an old wooden trestle bridge that was destroyed due to termites and wood rot. It crosses over Washington Street. It's pretty cool with laser cut panels with sayings and quotes in the railings and definitions of "bridge" etched into the surface. (Larry's dad redeemed himself by telling us about this bridge.)
The Vermont Street Bridge is just up from the corner of Vermont and 10th Avenue. Check out the old pictures of a couple of the San Diego footbridges. One of the pictures, the Sears Department Store, shows the old footbridge across Washington Street. The Spruce Street Suspension Bridge (from the southwest) is pretty nifty. Those trees Kate Sessions planted sure have grown!
From San Diego Footbridges to Southern California
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This bridge spans the Kate Sessions Canyon. She was a horticulturist who leased some land from the city way back when for her nursery. In return, she had to plant 200 trees a year around San Diego. So you can say, "Thank you, Kate," for a lot of the old trees in San Diego. She's called the "Mother of Balboa Park."
There's a trail down into the canyon below the old trestle bridge. It's kind of rough, there are roots and slippery inclines, but it's worth the trouble to see the bridge towering above you. It's 60 feet high at its highest point.
