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From The Archives: The Original 6th Street Bridge In 11 Of Its Most Iconic Hollywood Cameos
People drive their cars beneath the iconic 6th Street Bridge that connects downtown Los Angeles with Boyle Heights after its closure to traffic on Jan. 27, 2016. The crumbling Sixth Street Viaduct that has appeared in scores of Hollywood productions was later closed and demolished due to safety concerns after its concrete has become weakened by a rare chemical reaction.
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AFP via Getty Images
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Editor's Note: This story was published in 2016 before the demolition of the original 6th Street Viaduct. We're sharing it again as the city celebrates (with some speed bumps along the way) the opening of its replacement.
A video honors the history of the 6th Street Bridge—now closed and set for demolition—in film.
The video comes from Vashi Nedomansky and takes us through 11 Hollywood films that prominently feature the bridge, including Drive, Grease, To Live and Die in L.A. and Point Blank. Most of these films, of course, show the bridge full of mayhem, car chases, violence and a Skynet T-1000 stealing the identity of a police officer. Perhaps it's fitting then that the farewell party for the bridge got sightly out of hand and resulted in one arrest.
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Of course, this is only a handful of times we've seen the bridge on the screen. The bridge has also had a role in TV shows including Bosch, Fear the Walking Dead, St. Elsewhere; video games including L.A. Noire and Grand Theft Auto V; and music videos including INXS' "Afterglow," Kanye West's "Jesus Walks," Usher's "My Way," and Madonna's "Borderline."
The bridge officially closed on January 27, with demolition to begin this month. The planned demolition of the Sixth Street Viaduct will shut down the 101 freeway through Boyle Heights from the night of February 5 to February 7. The crumbling bridge with be replaced something a little more earthquake-safe by 2019.
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