Ronald Kirk Bridge

The Ronald Kirk Bridge is a pedestrian bridge over the Trinity River in Dallas, Texas. It connects Downtown Dallas and West Dallas, paralleling the 2012 Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge for vehicles, and the 1930 Texas and Pacific Railway Trinity River Bridge.

Ronald Kirk Pedestrian Bridge
Ronald Kirk Bridge in 2015
Coordinates	32°46′51″N 96°49′22″W
Carries	Pedestrians (since June 15, 2014)
Crosses	Trinity River
Locale	Continental Avenue in Dallas, Texas
Official name	Ronald Kirk Bridge
Other name(s)	Lamar-McKinney Viaduct, Continental Avenue Bridge
Named for	Ron Kirk
Owner	City of Dallas
Characteristics
Design	Multi-span plate girder bridge
Material	Concrete, steel
Total length	2,105 feet (642 m)
Width	60 feet (18 m)
No. of spans	43
History
Designer	Francis Dey Hughes
Constructed by	L. H. Lay Company
Construction start	1929 (1929)
Construction end	1930 (1930)
Opened	1932 (1932)
Closed	2013 (2013) (vehicular)
Replaced by	Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge (vehicular)
Lamar-McKinney Bridge
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Area	3 acres (1.2 ha)
MPS	Historic Road Infrastructure of Texas, 1866-1965
NRHP reference No.	15000708[1]
Added to NRHP	October 5, 2015
Location

History

Constructed as the Lamar-McKinney Viaduct in 1933, the original road bridge was built to carry vehicles across the periodically swelling Trinity River to West Dallas. It was completed 27 years after the river's 1908 flood that submerged most of the area.

The bridge was renamed the Ronald Kirk Bridge in 2016 from its former name, the Continental Avenue Bridge. It was renamed in honor of the first African-American mayor of Dallas, Ronald Kirk.^[2]

Restoration

The bridge had fallen into a state of disrepair by 2010, when plans were being developed to reconstruct Continental Avenue and the bridge. During the reconstruction of the bridge it was decided that there was no need for it to carry vehicular traffic, since the nearby Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge was completed in 2012 to do so. The design as a footbridge complemented the nearby open park plan for Klyde Warren Park, as a recreation amenity.^[3]

The Ronald Kirk Bridge reopened on Sunday, June 15, 2014 (Father's Day). It opened with a playground, a splash park, lounge chairs, human-sized chess boards, and a ceiling of cloth to shade the area, along with many trails surrounding the bridge in the Trinity River Basin and on the levees.^[4]

This bridge is part of the greater Trinity River Project.^[5]

See also

• National Register of Historic Places portal
• Transport portal
• Engineering portal
• Texas portal

• List of bridges on the National Register of Historic Places in Texas
• List of bridges documented by the Historic American Engineering Record in Texas
• National Register of Historic Places listings in Dallas County, Texas

References

1. Herrington, Jeff (November 14, 2014). "National Register of Historic Places Registration Form" (PDF). National Park Service. Retrieved August 28, 2018.
2. "Fox 4 News-Dallas Bridge Named for Former Mayor Ron Kirk". Retrieved 7 July 2016.
3. "KERA News-'It's Fabulous:' Dallas' Continental Bridge Reopens As A Park -- No Cars Allowed". Retrieved 17 June 2014.
4. "Dallas Morning News-All-day party celebrates Continental bridge reopening". Retrieved 17 June 2014.
5. "Trinity River Project-Continental Ave. Bridge". Archived from the original on 14 July 2014. Retrieved 17 June 2014.

External links

Media related to Lamar-McKinney Bridge at Wikimedia Commons

• Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) No. TX-90, "Lamar-McKinney Street Viaduct, Spanning Trinity River at Continental Street, Dallas, Dallas County, TX", 8 photos, 13 data pages, 1 photo caption page