Week 14 of my 52 NEW Things Project takes me to Bankers Hill/Hillcrest neighborhoods here in San Diego and the Spruce Street Suspension Bridge. I had heard about this bridge for a long time, and after recent promptings from my friend Duke and seeing it profiled on the Hidden San Diego website, I had to visit! On a warm Sunday afternoon, Ellen and I made our way there and despite the flat mid-day light, I grabbed a few shots of the bridge and surroundings.
Here's some info on this historic treasure from the Hillquest website: Perhaps the best-known “secret” in the neighborhood is the Spruce Street Suspension Bridge, engineered by Edwin Capps and built in 1912. The “wiggly bridge” as local kids call it was designed to provide pedestrian passage across a deep canyon, which isolated developing neighborhoods from the newly built trolley lines on Fourth and Fifth avenues.
This Bankers Hill treasure, located just west of First Avenue, is an inconspicuous, but truly special footbridge, the only of its type in the county. It crosses 70 feet above Kate Sessions Canyon, which honors the famous horticulturist responsible for many of the plantings found throughout the city. The unique walkway floats among treetops, stretching gracefully for 375 feet by steel suspension cables anchored to massive concrete piers hidden beneath the soil at both ends. The lightness of the bridge allows it to sway and dance in response to wind and walkers. From center span the downtown skyline can be seen.
