Editor’s note: first in a series of two.
After 18 months of extensive renovations, a refurbished Walnut Street Bridge opened with an elaborate ribbon-cutting ceremony on Saturday, Oct. 3, 2026.
Chattanoogans and visitors have crowded the acclaimed pedestrian bridge daily since the reopening. When the bridge originally opened in February 1891, more than 30,000 people attended, celebrating the connection between Hill City on the north bank of the Tennessee River and Chattanooga on the south bank.
While the Walnut Street span was the first permanent “bridge” between the two distinct sections of Hamilton County, other structures have featured prominently in history.
Interestingly, many of the people who daily drive across the Chickamauga Dam are unaware that the construction of the roadway atop it was not built until decades after the dam, nor do they know the individual for whom the link was named.