LA State Historic Park wants a pedestrian bridge connection to Chinatown

The Los Angeles State Historic Park reopened two years ago and was an instant hit. But it’s possible there’s yet another new feature coming to the park that could increase access to its revamped spaces.

A study is underway now to figure out the best place to create a link from the northern side of the park, along north Broadway, into the park via a pedestrian bridge. It’s “a connection long desired by both California State Parks and the communities of Solano Canyon and Chinatown,” the park’s website states. Urbanize LA was the first to spot a recent presentation from the study.

Access to the park for those living or approaching along North Broadway is complicated right now. There’s no access to the park from that street, even though it overlooks the park and is, on paper, just a short distance to span. (People sometimes congregate along the Broadway sidewalk closest to the park to listen the concerts and festivals it hosts.) Instead of crossing Broadway to enter the park, everyone has to use entrances on North Spring Street—at least a 20 minute walk away.

The study proposes adding a pedestrian bridge in one of four locations, each of them spanning a property that’s set to be developed by S&R Partners and the Lincoln Property Company. The developers have proposed a 920-unit project that faced some pushback from the neighbors.

California State Parks

Stephanie Campbell, a park and recreation specialist at the park, tells Curbed that the developers have been working with closely with the study’s team and that “everyone is supportive of the connection to Broadway.”

The study is exploring possible locations and designs for the bridge, which include versions with ramps, stairs, and elevators for easier access for all. Campbell expects the state to provide a better idea of where the bridge will go and what it will look like when the study wraps up at the end of this year.

Any pedestrian bridge to North Broadway would have to work around a few “constraints,” including the presence of the Gold Line tracks that run along the north side of the park, sensitive archaeological features nearby like the Zanja Madre, and private property interests are all that the project has to work with, but all that is being taken into account in the study.

There is no dedicated funding yet for designing or building the bridge, but the idea is to have the preliminary questions answers if and when funding does become available.

California State Parks