I drive underneath this bridge 5-7 days a week. It’s right by the Alston Ave exit on NC 147. Long abandoned, it was, as someone on Waymarking.com put it, “An ugly green thing.” On St. Patty’s Day, it became a brand new thing, one that would hopefully be good luck.

The Ugly Green Thing, courtesy of J. Wenatchee/Waymarking

See, this bridge connects two sides of the predominantly African-American Hayti (pronounced Hay-tie) district of Durham. The naïve would call it a ghetto, but before 1965, it thrived. There were Black-owned businesses, including a bank, library, hospital, and an insurance company. Voices strummed, plucked and wailed Piedmont blues, jazz, gospel and R & B into the night. Among them Nina Simone, Blind Boy Fuller and the Rev. Gary Davis.

Then a knife cut Hayti in two. A stretch of the highway was laid down right in the center of town, destroying businesses and displacing hundreds. A bridge was built in 1970 to heal this wound, but it festered. The bridge was dark, and the people desperate enough to rob and kill, to turn “Black Wall Street” into gangland. The bridge was closed in 1995; access blocked by massive iron bars and a chain-link fence.

Then something strange happened. People of all colors and classes moved into Durham. New businesses started opening up. People went downtown and stayed there for dinner and a show. Per capita crime rates dropped in half. So city council decided it was time to rebuild that bridge and put the two halves of Hayti back together again, or at least try.

Opinions were just as split. Voices from the News & Observer and the blog Bull City Rising showed passion and hatred on both sides.

“More waste of money just to placate racial and class equity.”

“This is the selfishness and small-minded thinking that has divided the Bull City for so long.”

“This area is so full of drugs and the bridge is just going to spread the crime out.”

“Let 'em rot in their own criminal juices. Note the sarcasm please. “

“Why can’t they [the Hayti residents] get anything nice?”

They did.

It took two semi tractor-trailers to move the 192 ft. long steel bridge to it’s new home.  It has an open structure with good visibility; a bike lane, a walking path and an LED light that arcs over the bridge, colored “Durham Blue.”