Under your feet, the Purple People Bridge carries pedestrians only, 2,670 feet across the Ohio River from Newport, Kentucky to downtown Cincinnati, Ohio. Right now you’re walking where trains, streetcars, and cars once traveled this same course. The original structure opened on April 1, 1872, as the Newport and Cincinnati Bridge — Cincinnati’s first railroad bridge across the Ohio — with one railroad track and two roadways cantilevered outside the trusses.
Those original piers were built from stone quarried in Adams County, Ohio. In 1896 the bridge was reconstructed under the direction of engineer M. J. Becker to meet the demands of heavier and more frequent trains. The work extended the piers to the west to carry two new streetcar decks and a vehicular deck between them, rebuilt the railroad deck into a Pennsylvania truss and four Parker trusses, and reconstructed the approaches; tolls were to be collected on the carriage deck to pay for maintenance and make a profit.
Now the bridge invites only foot traffic, but every step carries that layered history. Only foot traffic crosses now, but every plank still carries the weight of trains and streetcars for you to imagine.