The beauty of the pedestrian bridge stretching between Denver International Airport’s main terminal and the A concourse is in the eye of the crosser: It is the gateway to the Rockies for people from far-off lands or a potential shortcut for flyers running late.
No matter the perspective, the 365-foot-long pathway is a unique part of DIA. The free-spanning pedestrian overpass, supported by 35-foot steel trusses, is (for now) the longest structure of its kind in North America. It is designed so that two passengers jets can pass beneath it wingtip to wingtip.
On Friday afternoon, officials from DIA, the city of Denver and the design and construction teams that created it gathered at the airport’s Westin Hotel to mark the 25th anniversary of the bridge’s completion. It was built in fewer than 12 months and was finished roughly a year and a half before the airport opened to passengers in February 1995, officials say.
“Just from a structural standpoint, the steel has got to be substantial in height or length just to able to span that distance without a column,” Tim Habben, president of the bridge’s designer, LOA Architecture, told The Denver Post prior to Friday’s event. “Whenever I am trying to establish some credibility with clients that we don’t know, I point to that bridge.”
Luis Acosta, who founded Denver-based LOA as Luis O. Acosta Architects in 1985, led the design.
Fun fact: DIA has the only passenger bridge in the US where you can watch an airplane taxi beneath you http://t.co/d6Q1SlGBux
— Denver Int'l Airport (@DENAirport) September 30, 2013
Not only is it free spanning, the bridge was built as a self-supporting structure independent of the terminal and concourse buildings because it was not part of the airport’s original design, according to Habben. It was added later, he said, to provide an alternative way to access gates without relying on the airport’s subterranean train system.
Many Coloradans know the bridge for being home to the third of three TSA checkpoints at DIA. Travelers looking to stretch their legs pre-flight or hoping to shave off some of the time they would spend waiting in one of the two security lines on the main level of the Jeppesen Terminal can head up to the northern end of the terminal’s top floor and walk across the bridge to reach a security screening area and the A gates beyond.
Fewer people know the bridge has two floors, the upper of which houses DIA’s international customs checkpoint. For some, its east- and west-facing windows provide their first views of Colorado — or even the United States — when they arrive from another country.
“Really, it is that first entry point for international passengers,” DIA spokeswoman Emily Williams said. “If you stand on the bridge, you get a panoramic view of two diverse Colorado ecosystems: the mountains and the plains.”
Changes are coming to the bridge along with the rest of the airport. This summer, Great Hall Partners, a group led by Spanish company Ferrovial Airports, will get started on a $650 million overhaul of the Jeppesen Terminal. The project will eventually move all security screening areas to the top floor and eliminate the checkpoint on the bridge. The bridge will feature more support and service spaces when the renovation is complete, Williams said.
Plans to build a new international arrivals center at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in Washington call for a 900-foot-long, free-spanning bridge that would unseat DIA’s as longest on the continent. A longer free-span bridge already exists at Gatwick Airport in the United Kingdom.
Last year, around 2.5 million people used the DIA bridge to get to departing flights, according to the airport, roughly 12 percent of all those screened by TSA. Another 800,000 people went through customs there.
Friday’s celebration of the bridge anniversary was a precursor to larger celebrations to come when DIA itself turns 25 in 2020.
