The historic Waco Suspension Bridge will be out of commission for up to two years for repairs, leaving local residents and tourists with mixed feelings.

A Waco icon, the bridge, which was a crossing for the Chisholm Trail, is used for everything from weddings to a meet-up place for local running and walking clubs.

City officials say, while the temporary closure might be painful, the bridge needs to be rehabilitated.

“It’s going to be an inconvenience, but I tell ya, we’ve got to practice a little patience, and once we’re doing with this project it’s going to be something that’s here for our kids and their kids,” said Jonathan Cook, Director of Parks & Recreation for the City of Waco. “You just have to be creative and explore some other areas.”

Runners agree, it serves as an opportunity to explore the rest of what Waco has to offer.

“People who use the bridge a lot are sad to not have it open to them, but I also think it opens up opportunity for people to discover Brazos Park East and instead of having people meet here they can meet in Cameron Park,” said Todd Milerd, Store Director at Waco Running Company.

Millerd says they’re also looking forward to the bridge, especially the wooden deck, being made safer for the runners crossing it and believe, in the end, it will be worth the wait.

“When it’s done, we’re all going to appreciate it,” said Millerd.

In the interim, however, tourists wanting to walk across the picturesque bridge are out of luck.

“It’s just a little bit frustrating that you come and want to do things, but it seems like everything’s under construction at once,” a visitor from Raceland, Louisiana told KWTX Tuesday.

While some are disappointed the bridge is closed, others like Bruce Huff are elated.

“I’ve been waiting four years for this day to come,” said Huff, the President of W Bench Litter Patrol. “It’s such a historic spot, it represents so much of what Waco is, and these Baylor students, they may not look at it as trashing, but it is trashing, it just breaks my heart.”

Huff is referencing the “tortilla tossing” that happens from the bridge onto a platform in the river which has become a right-of-passage of sorts for Baylor students.

W Bench Litter Patrol has been on a mission for four years to clean up Waco, and Huff says the Suspension Bridge is one of the city’s “trashiest” spots; the bridge area was the site of the group’s first “litter pick” In Nov. 2016 when more than two tons of trash was collected.

Huff says both the tortillas and the plastic wrappers, which are often left tied on the bridge railings after the tortillas are thrown, are problematic.

“It’s a two-edged sword–the plastic, of course, is no good, and the tortillas expand into the stomachs of wildlife and explode their stomachs,” said Huff. “It also keeps them away from their regular migratory patterns because they stay here to eat, it’s just taking away from the whole cycle of nature.”

As part of the bridge’s restoration, the platform the tortillas are thrown onto will be gone, Huff says, and so will the harmful tradition.

“Hopefully we’ll be starting a new pattern of things to do for Baylor students that are positive rather than negative like this,” said Huff.

The preservation project has been in the works for years.

“It was originally slated for a couple years ago, but as you dig deeper, a lot of the study and comprehensive planning that goes into it has put us to this point now,” said Cook. “It’s been a long process, but we need to handle it with a lot of care due to the complexity of the project, taking care of one of our greatest monuments, not only here in Waco but here in the state of Texas.

The city held a virtual groundbreaking ceremony last week.

Fencing has now been installed at both ends of the bridge and the Riverwalk will be closed around the bridge area for construction; there’s also a lot of traffic control devices on University Parks Dr. and MLK Blvd., so officials are asking the public to use caution on-foot and behind the wheel.

“You’re going to see new decking, a replacement of steel cables, painting of archways and toll houses…it’s really going to be fresh and brought into this century,” said Cook. “Today we still have weddings and family reunions, picnics, even large events like our Brazos Nights concert series here, so this is a project to take care of what we have so it will be better than even before.”

—KXXV