New Dallas Bridge to Light Up Tonight

Driving down I-35, heading into downtown Dallas, I see a giant…I don’t know what. What is that?

Later I chatted with my mom, a longtime Dallasite and her exact words were, “and I guess we’re trying to be like San Francisco now.” I laughed. Dallas has a bridge.

The story—wealthy oilman’s daughter turns philanthropist and donates money to do “good.”  And, the bridge is named for her, Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge. Also known as the Trinity River Bridges, as the culmination of the project includes three bridges to span the Trinity River in Dallas.

But all jokes aside, the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge is outstanding. The designer is renowned Spanish architect/engineer Santiago Calatrava, who also designed three bridges in Haarlemmermeer, the Netherlands spanning the main canal in a similar project. In the tradition of Spanish architects like Gaudí, the bridge (soon to be bridges) is a spectacle: white and cable-stayed, overarching the city, and connecting Singleton Boulevard to Woodall Rodgers Freeway in west Dallas.

What’s more is that the bridge will light up with the night’s skyline beginning tonight, reports Pegasus News.

The Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge is scheduled to open March 2-4, 2012. More construction images found here.