Preservation Planner Edgar Garcia: The Los Angeles River Bridges

Edgar Garcia grew up in Lincoln Heights near the Main Street bridge, appreciating the bridges and the river underneath them since he was a kid. As the Preservation Planner for the Los Angeles Bridges, he recognizes the importance to renovate and possibly reconstruct the bridges along the river. Still, he hopes that any work on the bridges will be thoughtful enough to acknowledge the bridge the came before it, preserving the individual history that each bridge has developed over the century.

"I think the people who built the bridges really wanted to get things done. I think we're indebted to that generation that built all of these bridges. But I don't really think that they were worried about preserving the wildlife and the natural features of the river."

Student Producer Brenda Ramos interviewed Edgar Garcia. Click here to read about her impressions.

Below are video interviews with Edgar Garcia, produced by the Youth Voices Team at KCET.

Monumental Bridges
An historical overview of the bridges over the LA River.

Family of Bridges
An historical overview of the bridges over the LA River.

Channelizing the River
An overview of why the river was channelized.

Merrill Butler
A biography of Merrill Butler, an engineer who built many of the bridges in the early 20th Century.