Big Dam Bridge
Pedestrian And Bicycle Bridge Opened 2006 On Top Of Murray Lock And Dam, Linking Little Rock And North Little Rock. At Roughly 4,200 Feet It Is The Longest Bridge In North America Built Specifically For Pedestrians And Cyclists Rather Than Converted From Another Use. · Little Rock, Arkansas
The Big Dam Bridge runs about four thousand two hundred feet across the Arkansas River on top of Murray Lock and Dam, and it was built from scratch for people on foot and on bikes rather than converted from a railway or a road - which is what makes it the longest bridge of its kind in North America. It opened in 2006 after a long and locally famous argument about whether a city that size needed one, and it settled the question by becoming the thing Little Rock is proudest of. It is the keystone of the Arkansas River Trail, an eighty-eight-mile network whose central loop of about sixteen miles crosses this bridge at one end and the converted Clinton Presidential Park Bridge at the other. It is ninety feet above the water at the crown, which is high enough that the ramps switchback rather than climb, and it is lit at night. It is also completely free, at every hour, to anyone on foot, on wheels or on a bike.
4000 Cooks Landing Road, Little Rock, Arkansas, 72118, United States
Open year-round, twenty-four hours a day, and free. The bridge is lit at night and is used at all hours by walkers, runners and cyclists. The car parks at either end are open daylight hours in practice and the surrounding parks have their own gate times. The bridge closes only in severe weather or for maintenance. The Big Dam Bridge 100 cycling event takes place in autumn and brings thousands of riders across it.