Gateway Bridge opens as “new front door” to Nashville
Mayor Bill Purcell led state and local officials in a convoy of Metro vehicles opening the new Gateway Bridge.
“This is a magnificent new front door to the city of Nashville,” Purcell said.
The arch bridge reconnects neighborhoods in East Nashville with downtown, replacing the historic Shelby Street Bridge which was closed to vehicular traffic in 1998.
Purcell, state Transportation Commissioner Gerald Nicely, Vice Mayor Howard Gentry and other officials participated in a ribbon-cutting ceremony and joined a parade of police motorcycles, a fire truck, buses and other Metro vehicles to mark the bridge opening.
The Maplewood High School band performed for the opening activities.
The Gateway Bridge is painted Aircraft silver and Pantene red underneath. It towers 192 feet above the Cumberland River and has a 544-foot arch. The new six-lane structure stretches 1,660 feet from Shelby Avenue on the east bank of the Cumberland River to downtown at First Avenue .
The lead design consultant for the bridge project was HNTB Corporation ( Kansas City , Missouri and Nashville , Tennessee ). Design began in 1996 and was completed February 2001.
The lead contractor on the $29 million bridge project was Ray Bell Construction ( Nashville , Tennessee ). Construction began in late spring 2001.
