Like the vast majority of downtown residents, we regard the Walnut Street Bridge as a Chattanooga landmark. It is our classic icon, and like Lookout Mountain, Ruby Falls, or the Tennessee aquarium, it is what we hold dear and makes us different as a city.
The Walnut Street Bridge will undergo a major renovation starting in 2019 and the lighting component has recently been in the media. City staff convened several meetings earlier this year. Homeowners like us who live near the bridge were not invited.
The Moment Factory of Montreal proposed a pulsating colored LED light show patterned after the Montreal lighted bridge. That bridge is different from ours in several important respects. It is a five lane vehicular bridge and does not have a substantial number of full time residents in close proximity.
On Sunday, June 3, the Chattanooga Times Free Press published a front-page article about the “Vegas style” light show and pulsating colored lights that were planned for the renovated Walnut Street Bridge. The budget for the lights exceeded $4 million and that did not include the likely high cost of maintenance, upkeep, and programming of the system.
In late April residents near the Walnut Street Bridge first learned of the earlier meetings about the bridge lighting proposal. We all were concerned and frankly shocked that our stately bridge, with its place on the National Register of Historic Places, was being proposed as a sight for a “Vegas” light show.
A group of homeowners met with Mayor Berke and Katelyn Kirnie, the director of Public Art Chattanooga. We were assured that the pulsating light show was just a proposal and would not be the final outcome. We were also told that the bridge’s lighting budget was $3 million and frankly the city could not afford the higher cost of the pulsating “Vegas” light treatment.
Bruce Stewart of our group also pointed out the solemnity of the Ed Johnson memorial planned near the end of the bridge and how this proposed light show did not fit with the dignity of that plan.
We all cherish our bridge. It is a classic and historic icon. The proposed lighting system is opposed by nearly everyone who lives within the immediate area of the bridge. Mayor Berke in the May meeting said that the bridge is our treasure and in fact it is more for the people of Chattanooga than for our many visitors.
Why, then, is the mayor's administration recommending such an outrageous and costly proposal in the 2019 budget document? And although some of the lighting money will reportedly come from “private sources,” do we really need a gaudy light treatment to illuminate it when we have no funding for the homeless who live beneath that very same bridge?
The Walnut Street bridge belongs to all of Chattanooga. Those of us who live closest to the bridge love our landmark and want to make sure any changes don’t detract from its classic beauty. We hope the City Council will consider our input and keep the bridge from becoming a carnival side show.
Phil and Vicki Davis
Museum Bluffs Riverside condos