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Deaths on the Colorado Street Bridge in Pasadena

Started by bing101, July 19, 2017, 08:14:26 PM

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bing101



Max Rockatansky

That would be a pretty gruesome way to kill your self and potentially painful, the bottom of the bridge is essentially just asphalt and concrete:

https://flic.kr/p/Seqyff


sparker

Growing up in next-door Glendale in the '50's, this bridge was invariably referred to as the "Suicide Bridge" -- particularly after the adjacent "Colorado Freeway" (later part of the CA 134 Ventura Freeway alignment) was opened about 1957.  This was part of the last surface alignment of US 66 between Pasadena and downtown L.A. prior to the opening of the Arroyo Seco Parkway (aka Pasadena Freeway) in later 1940; that segment was subsequently signed as Alternate US 66 to serve as a truck route because of the parkway's truck restriction.  Until the current 134/210/710(stub) interchange was opened in 1976, the eastern access to the old bridge was convoluted; one had to go south a block on Orange Grove, then turn west for a block -- then north and west across the bridge; through traffic dropped precipitously for the 19 years that "detour" was in place.  Restoration of the direct access to the original Colorado St. bridge (via a single-lane flyover) was done as part of the I-210 interchange project, located immediately to the east of the expanded freeway bridge.   These days, with daily peak-commute congestion on 134, the old bridge is used as a parallel freeway bypass.  Curiously, the verticals on the bridge railing extend about 12 feet above the bridge deck and are curved in toward the road and terminated in a sharp spike to discourage would-be suicides (in the hopes that the folks who want to kill themselves really don't want to hurt themselves in the process!).  Back when I was a kid there was always talk of closing off the old bridge's sidewalks to discourage suicides, but as it was the only pedestrian access from that part of Pasadena west of Arroyo Seco into the downtown area unless one wanted to detour north to the vicinity of the Rose Bowl,  blocking it off wasn't politically feasible -- so the intermittent suicides continue to this day.     



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