Demolition Of The 6th Street Viaduct Begins

That headline hurts. :(

This morning, demolition crews descended upon the eastern portion of the 6th Street Viaduct and began to demolish the 84-year-old landmark.

The bridge holds a special place in L.A.’s memory. Aside from its appearance in countless films, music videos, and photographs, the bridge itself was an architecturally significant, art-deco landmark that harkened back to an earlier version of Los Angeles now relegated to history.

Although the demolition will take place over the course of several weeks, demolition crews today are working rapidly to demolish the part that stretches over the 101 Freeway in Boyle Heights. Right now, the 101 Freeway is shut down east of the 110 while crews tear down the bridge.

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This portion of the demolition, as Eric Garcetti jammed out earlier this week, is expected to take about 40 hours, during which the 101 will remain closed.

But, honestly, who cares about the freeway closure. Los Angeles is losing a piece of its history today. And though we’ll always remember it in the movies, there was just something so special about driving (or biking) across it, downtown Los Angeles in full view, that the silver-screen will never be able to recreate it.

The new bridge is scheduled to open come 2019.

Here are some social media posts showing the progress of the demolition over the course of the day: