Colorado Street Bridge

The Colorado Street Bridge in Pasadena has been something of interest to me for the past couple of years, because of the stories that are associated with it. This might be an eerie thing to post about, but up until recently after seeing something about it in the newspaper I decided to go ahead and research it myself.

A friend took me with her a few years ago while she was taking pictures for one of her photography classes and someone had mentioned it had been dubbed “Suicide Bridge.” I had seen the bridge plenty of times before during the day and thought the architecture of it was awesomely intact and the city had done a good job of keeping it nearly the same as when it had been built. I probably never would have known anything close to a suicide would have happened there if someone had not of mentioned it.

The bridge was built in 1913 and connects Pasadena with Glendale and Eagle Rock. It is officially known as an architectural landmark and is probably one of the sights you always see going down 210 late at night, because of the classic 1920 designed lampposts. During the day the bridge looks calm and peaceful, but at night some say it gives off more of a dark feeling. If you’re really from the area then you probably already know the scary stories they tell about the bridge being haunted by ghosts of those who committed suicide jumping off of it. Six years after construction had taken place in the 1900s the first suicide was recorded and since then hundreds after. Many of the suicides have been blamed on the Great Depression of the 1930s which left people with such little hope that they chose to end their lives. Whether or not supernatural forces are actually associated with the bridge, no one will ever know. Just like the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, the Colorado bridge has been given more safety nets and extra things have been added onto it for safety precautions.

Colorado Street (known as Boulevard now) Bridge today is used in a lot of films that take place in Los Angeles County (recently Yes Man, 2008). It is also closed every summer for a festival called “A Celebration on the Colorado Street Bridge”. Locals come to celebrate the history of the bridge and its restoration with live music and antique cars.