Your walk across the Trinity River follows the Phyllis J. Tilley Memorial Bridge, a pedestrian bridge in Fort Worth, Texas named for Phyllis Tilley, an advocate for the riverfront who founded the Streams & Valleys nonprofit dedicated to preserving the Trinity River. The bridge crosses the Trinity River, connecting Trinity Park to a new trail that terminates in downtown Fort Worth. Walk its description with your eyes: it stretches 368' (112m) as a steel stressed ribbon/arch combination — the first of its kind in North America.
A graceful steel arch, with a span of 163' (49.5m), supports steel stress ribbons and precast concrete planks that form the walkway and complement the adjacent historic Lancaster Avenue vehicular bridge. The arch spans the entire river and the steel stress ribbons rest upon the arch. The ribbons’ minimal sag profile creates major tension loads, which are balanced against the thrust loading in the opposite direction caused by the steel arch; that balancing minimizes the required size of the foundations.
Pre-fabricated concrete planks have been anchored directly to the steel stress ribbons to form the bridge walkway. The arch follows the river while the ribbons rest beneath your feet, leading toward the nearby Lancaster Avenue crossing.