The aura of walking across the Holmberg Bridge connecting Walnut Street to the Bluff View Art District is something akin to traversing the Swinging Bridge in Rock City or looking off the side of a tall building.
Although there's no real danger to any of the three, there's a kind of implied danger. Riverfront Parkway, lots of rock or a faraway street await below.
As the city begins to replace the glass panels on the 11-year-old bridge, we worry it will lose its cachet. Slip-resistant stainless steel grate panels don't have the same cool factor as glass.
We understand the city's desire not to have to replace multiple panels of glass per year at $4,000 apiece. We also understand that unfeeling people - believing city government has an unlimited amount of money for replacements - are only too happy to vandalize an iconic attraction. And we acknowledge a statement by Public Works Administrator Justin Holland that a two-year investigation has been made for the best replacement materials.
But we can't help but think about The Ledge, the glass-paneled "porch" that extends out more than four feet from the 103rd-floor Skydeck in Chicago's Willis Tower, or the Tennessee Aquarium, where glass holds back millions of gallons of water from visitors, or the 110-yard glass skywalk - 4,600 feet above the forest floor - along the side of Tianmen Mountains in China.
Somehow, they all have glass that can take a licking. But maybe they don't have vandals, so perhaps the stainless steel grates are the city's way of saying, at least in this case, "This is why we can't have nice things."
Nevertheless, city officials say walkers still will be able to see below and that the gaps in the grate will be "super small," perhaps "an eighth of an inch" across.
So, the bridge may lose its status as a favorite stop for prom photos, but we're delighted it still will provide access to the picturesque art district.