LeapFrog! was a fundraiser in Erie, PA, in 2004. There is so much to see on “We are the Future…Let us LEAP” by Erie School District High School Art Students and Teachers. In 2023, we found this frog in front of the Erie Public School building thanks to Amy H.’s map of Erie’s frogs.
Category Archives: US Cities
Best Bridge – Bridge Madness 2025
The Mid-Hudson Bridge in Poughkeepsie wins Bridge Madness 2025 with 88% of the votes.
Thank you for participating in the 2025 Bridge Madness Tournament! I hope you had as much fun voting as I did watching the votes add up. There were several surprises in this year’s match-up. Multiple iconic bridges got knocked out early; and the Mid-Hudson Bridge inspired a strong following right from the beginning.
As a reminder, this year’s tournament featured suspension bridges visited by urbantraipsing nationally and internationally. Below is the completed brackets for Bridge Madness 2025. To learn more about the bridges, revisit the introduction which has links to posts on each bridge. Keep scrolling to see past winners and for an opportunity to send me feedback on Bridge Madness.
I’m already brainstorming for Bridge Madness 2026. Hope you come back!
Past Winners
Bridge Madness 2024: Pittsburgh Pedestrian Bridges Winner – East Liberty Station Pedestrian Bridge
Bridge Madness 2023: Pittsburgh River Bridges Winner – Smithfield Street Bridge
Bridge Madness 2025 Map
Send me Feedback!
Bridge Madness started from a conversation with one of urbantraipsing’s fans. I added links to posts about the bridges in the introduction this year based on feedback from participants in prior years. Now it’s your turn to send me feedback. Do you have suggestions that would make the tournaments more fun? Thoughts on how to engage more people in voting? A bridge you recommend I add to my list of bridges to explore?
Also, I make a postcard every year announcing Bridge Madness, if you fill in your address below, I will add you to my mailing list for next year (the postcard is the only mailing I will send you).
Bridge Madness 2025 – Championship
Rules
In the 2025 Bridge Madness Tournament, 16 suspension bridges go pier-to-pier in a reader’s choice tournament to pick the best one. This year’s tournament features suspension bridges visited by urbantraipsing nationally and internationally.
Results of the Final Four:
- 6th Street Bridge vs. Manhattan Bridge – 69% to 31%
- Albert Bridge vs. Mid-Hudson Bridge – 15% to 85%
Below is the bracket for the Championship. To learn more about the bridges, revisit the introduction which has links to posts on each bridge.
Championship
Bridge Madness 2025 Map
Bridge Madness 2025 – Final Four
Rules
In the 2025 Bridge Madness Tournament, 16 suspension bridges go pier-to-pier in a reader’s choice tournament to pick the best one. This year’s tournament features suspension bridges visited by urbantraipsing nationally and internationally.
Results of the Elite Eight:
- 6th Street Bridge vs. 7th Street Bridge – 64% to 36%
- Brooklyn Bridge vs. Manhattan Bridge – 44% to 56%
- Albert Bridge vs. Golden Gate Bridge – 51% to 49%
- Mid-Hudson Bridge vs. Tower Bridge – 79% to 21%
Below are the brackets for the Final Four. Remember to vote for one bridge in each bracket by noon on Thursday, March 20th, and then return on March 22th to vote for the Championship.
The bridges are divided into two conferences: New York City and Great Lakes Region vs. National and International. To learn more about the bridges, revisit the introduction which has links to posts on each bridge.
New York City and Great Lakes Region
National and International
Bridge Madness 2025 Map
Bridge Madness 2025 – Elite Eight
Rules
In the 2025 Bridge Madness Tournament, 16 suspension bridges go pier-to-pier in a reader’s choice tournament to pick the best one. This year’s tournament features suspension bridges visited by urbantraipsing nationally and internationally.
Results of the Sweet Sixteen:
- 6th Street Bridge vs. Roebling Suspension Bridge – 52% to 48%
- 7th Street Bridge vs. Wheeling Suspension Bridge – 60% to 40%
- 9th Street Bridge vs. Brooklyn Bridge – 28% to 72%
- South 10th Street Bridge vs. Manhattan Bridge – 16% to 74%
- Albert Bridge vs. Lions Gate Bridge – 58% to 42%
- Chelsea Bridge vs. Golden Gate Bridge – 35% to 65%
- Jubilee Bridges vs. Mid-Hudson Bridge – 10% to 90%
- Tower Bridge vs. Bosphorus Bridge – 83% to 17%
Below are the brackets for the Elite Eight. Remember to vote for one bridge in each bracket by noon on Thursday, March 13th, and then return on March 15th to vote for the Final Four.
The bridges are divided into two conferences: New York City and Great Lakes Region vs. National and International. To learn more about the bridges, revisit the introduction which has links to posts on each bridge.
New York City and Great Lakes Region
National and International
Bridge Madness 2025 Map
Bridge Madness 2025 – Sweet Sixteen
Rules
In the 2025 Bridge Madness Tournament, 16 suspension bridges go pier-to-pier in a reader’s choice tournament to pick the best one. This year’s tournament features suspension bridges visited by urbantraipsing nationally and internationally. Below are the brackets for the Sweet Sixteen. Remember to vote for one bridge in each bracket by noon on Thursday, March 6th, and then return on March 8th to vote for the Elite Eight.
The bridges are divided into two conferences: New York City and Great Lakes Region vs. National and International. To learn more about the bridges, revisit the introduction which has links to posts on each bridge.
New York City and Great Lakes Region
National and International
Bridge Madness 2025 Map
Leap Frog 12
LeapFrog! was a fundraiser in Erie, PA, in 2004. “Infinity Frogs” by Tom Tucker was beyond our walkshed when Shelly and I were searching for frogs in 2023, but with Amy H.’s map of Erie’s frogs we were able to drive directly there.
Grove City History
I didn’t have to go far to learn more about Grove City to flesh out the observations I made while walking the bridges. The Borough helpfully installed history markers along the historic business core of South Broad Street. I photographed 33 of the plaques, which I think is all, for anyone interested in virtually visiting these history markers. Of course, these could also be used in the debate over art vs. sign as they also fall into the nuanced mess of the grey area.
What is a Sign?
My day job for the last decade is working with zoning ordinances. *Yawn,* right? Except I find it surprisingly intriguing. For example, when I visited Grove City in 2022, I was in the middle of writing new model sign regulations for zoning. The puzzle pieces for this effort included incorporating Supreme Court rulings on the constitutionality of sign regulations and making the regulations easier to understand and follow.1 So signs were already on my mind when I encountered Grove City’s parking sculptures and my brain exploded.
Besides the century-old battle between planners and billboard companies, the most difficult thing about sign regulations is the definition of sign. Art cannot be regulated by zoning, but signs can. However, there is a lot of grey between art and sign. Grove City exemplifies that grey area.
Grove City has a series of outdoor sculptures that incorporate directional signage for public parking areas. Based on a strict interpretation of Pittsburgh’s definition of sign (which interpretation frequently got me into arguments with my boss when I was zoning staff for Pittsburgh), the minute any component of a piece of artwork contains a sign, the whole piece of art becomes a sign (see Pittsburgh’s Zoning Ordinance Section 919.01.C.1). The phrase “or any structure designed to carry the above visual information” supports my interpretation that Grove City’s parking sculptures would not be permitted in Pittsburgh because they would not comply with the sign regulations.
Fortunately, Grove City’s zoning ordinance measures a sign only on the “separate individual letters, words, or graphic elements on the background” (see Grove City Zoning Ordinance Section 702, page 72 of 84 in the PDF). As the structure doesn’t count in the calculation of sign area in Grove City, I can now understand how parking sign sculptures could be created without violating their own ordinance.
If you are a frequent visitor to urbantraipsing, you know I don’t typically take selfies. However, I did with the first parking sculpture I encountered in Grove City to provide a sense of scale. These are substantial structures. I am standing in the selfie…and, for those who don’t know me in person, I am 6 feet tall.
- I succeeded in creating a model ordinance that balanced brevity with thoroughness and usability with constitutionality. Economy, PA, (Chapter 180, Article XIV) and McCandless, PA, (Article 1305) are two of the municipalities that have adopted this ordinance to their specific needs. ↩︎
Grove City Bridges
I bought my first car in 2021. It ended up having a lot of problems. The first time I tried to drive to Erie, it started shaking like it was going to spontaneously break apart into a million pieces, just like a cartoon. Instead, it went into limp home mode and I turned around at the next exit, which was the middle of nowhere. After several repairs and a period of no further incidents, the following year I was ready to try again. But first, I tested the car to see if it could handle Rt. 79.
I knew of Grove City as an exit about halfway to Erie and as the closest outlet mall to Pittsburgh. I decided to aim for the actual Borough of Grove City1 as a destination to explore while testing my car’s ability to handle the speed limit and hills of Rt. 79. Naturally, since I arrived safely and knew nothing about the town, I set out to walk the bridges.
A town of 2.7 square miles and less than 8,000 residents, Grove City has several bridges over Wolf Creek and elsewhere. Unfortunately, the town’s premier pedestrian bridge, Rainbow Bridge (pictured above), was closed due to construction activities in the area. I discovered a second, unmapped pedestrian bridge over a small tributary to Wolf Creek, which I crossed only to see a sign on the other side claiming the bridge was not a throughway and directing people to use the sidewalks on the street to reach Grove City College’s main campus.
While the bridges themselves were structurally uninteresting, except for the Rainbow Bridge, I visited a throughout cross-section of town in walking them….which is the point of my bridge walking habit. My path took me through the college campus, the now less prominent industrial area, the large homes built for the boss class of the industries, the small homes built for the industrial workers, and the business district, both the car oriented portion and the historic portion. There are several bridgeless neighborhoods that I did not visit, but even without them, I learned a lot about the town in a short space of time.
Grove City Bridges
Grove City Cross-Section
- I don’t know if this is true in other states, but Pennsylvania lets municipalities of any size call themselves cities. ↩︎
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