The bronze hands are meant to convey a welcome. In the process of soliciting community input for the bridge design, Jones said he found that “these tensions still exist.” But one recurring theme from people was that the new bridge could serve as a new connection. The Black business district around 38th & 4th withered. Like many such road projects nationally, it segregated the historically Black Central and Bryant neighborhoods from mostly white Kingfield to the west. The freeway’s route also consumed part of what was then Nicollet Field and is now Martin Luther King Jr. They ghost an image of the houses and trees that once lined the erased block between Stevens and 2nd avenues before the freeway trench was gouged.
DATELINE THE BRIDGE DRIVERS
And most noticeably - both to drivers on the freeway below and to people crossing the bridge - Jones has created subtle shadings with the bridge rail- ings. There are Adinkra symbols inspired by West African culture in the middle. There are open-hand bronze medallions on four pilasters at the bridge’s ends. The artistic contri- butions from Jones are financed by state road aid money that supplemented the city’s public arts project budget.Īlthough the new bridge opened to the public last October, the final artistic touches designed by Jones are just being added to the foot and bike span. The replacement footbridge is far wider, with an airy open-top feel. But it’s now grown far beyond that with bridge and ramp rebuilds, the reweaving of lanes and stormwater work. The project grew out of a push by Lake Street area interests for better access to and from the freeway. The new bridge is part of MnDOT’s project. Chain-link fence curved inward at the top, imparting claustrophobia. It was far narrower than current standards require for a foot/bike bridge. The original bridge to span the freeway at 40th Street was built in the 1960s. “I grew up around freeway construction, and freeway disruption as well,” said Jones, who was raised within blocks of the rebuilt bridge. When it came to designing the artistic elements of the new pedestrian bridge over Interstate 35W at East 40th Street, Seitu Jones didn’t have to be taught what the freeway destroyed.
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