Cesar Chavez Avenue Bridge

Play the L.A. River is a come-one-come-all project by the arts collective Project 51 -- a collective of L.A. River-loving artists, designers, planners, writers, educators -- that invites Angelenos to explore, enjoy, reclaim, and reimagine the mighty L.A. River as a grand civic space that can green and connect our communities.

CARD: 8 of Downtown

SITE: Cesar Chavez Avenue + Mission Road, Los Angeles, 90033

L.A.'s very first bridge in 1870, and beloved ever since as an essential connection between downtown and the eastside.

As you head east from Chinatown and Olvera Street, below Union Station's train tracks, you'll encounter this elegant Spanish Colonial-style bridge, once part of the path of El Camino Real, which linked the missions of California from San Diego up to Sonoma County. After a glance at the downtown skyscrapers on the southside, or the San Gabriel Mountains on the northside (if you look past the infamous Twin Towers Correctional Facility), you can either head towards Lincoln Heights on Mission Road, past the Piggyback Yard (future site of a large park, hopefully), or continue east down Cesar Chavez to reach the historic neighborhood of Boyle Heights.