The Millennium Bridge again, but it bears revisiting. The world's first cable stay bridge using post-tensioned construction, I've seen it in engineering texts and lecture videos and at least one movie. It was designed to nestle in amongst the tall buildings of downtown Denver and provide safe passage across a railroad yard. It's the southernmost of three innovative pedestrian bridges to cross the railway, the South Platte River, and an Interstate and connect downtown Denver with the Highlands community.
The span is 130 feet but the deck is only 6 inches thick. It's suspended by cables to a 200 foot mast that acts as a lever anchored to the foundation by cables on the opposite side of the bridge. The deck is 80 feet wide at the average and is supported by I-beams.
The South Platte River bridge and the Highlands pedestrian bridge over Interstate 25 are visible from the Millennium Bridge.
While on the bridge, I checked the weather.
Pressure was dropping but with 30% humidity (from my pocket weather meter, I didn't expect any precipitation or sharp drops in temperature soon.
Here's a closer look at the South Platte River bridge. It's springy enough to feel it as you walk across.
The two major rivers in Denver are the South Platte River and Cherry Creek (I've heard Cherry Creek called "Cherry Creek River" several times and, if South Platte's a River, I guess Cherry Creek might as well be considered a river, too.). This confluence is of historical importance because it's set where Auraria and Denver would be located. The rivers were never large enough to provide economic river traffic (though check out "Venice on the Creek" below!) But it did provide a waterway and convenient sewer for the early settlers.
Cherry Creek is named "Cherry Creek" for the multitudinous choke cherries that grew along it's banks.
There was some hope that this area would yield gold early on, but that dream quickly dissipated. It's there but not in anything like economic quantities.
This guy is about as much responsible for Denver's existence as just about anybody. Little Raven was an Arapahoe chief who welcomed the gold-hunting settlers from (mostly) Georgia to the area and helped them develop a stable community.
You'll notice a lot of things in the Denver area named "Little Raven" and "Arapahoe" (including the Arapahoe County where I live.)
Little Raven tried to establish peace first among the tribes of the Great Plains, with considerable success, and then with the settlers with mixed success. He lived from around 1810 to 1899 so he lived to see conflicts such as the Sand Creek Massacre, and died in a military hospital in Cantonment, Oklahoma. He is buried at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.
I was in familiar territory for the first half mile or so. Here's the row of iron truss foot bridges that connect Speer Avenue with downtown Denver.
These things confused me. There are five and I could see no obvious purpose for them. Best I could figure was that they were a channel for kayakers.
Turns out, that wasn't too far off the mark.
In 1996, the Denver Greenway Foundation launched (heh) an attraction called "Venice on the Creek". They bought five punts (23 foot long wooden boats), hired punters to steer the boats, and installed five dams and locks. It lasted until 2009 when maintenance costs overran the revenue.
Denver's love of murals extend up and down Cherry Creek.
This plaque, embedded in the stone wall lining the creek, explains the origin of the name "Cherry Creek" and some of its history. Although it isn't a mountain stream, it was given to flooding.
August 3, 1933, a dam near the headwaters of Cherry Creek in Cottonwood Canyon burst and sent a devastating flood into Denver.
The downtown segment of the Cherry Creek trail is usually fairly trafficked by hikers, joggers, bikers and people just trying to get from one place to another. In response, Denver keeps it well maintained and ornamented.
The trail runs close to many popular downtown sites including the Bellco Theater/Center for the Performing Arts/Denver Convention Center, with their RTD station, and the Auraria Campus.
There's plenty of signage on the trail telling you where you are and how to get to where you're going.
If you're injured on the trail, it runs by the central installation of Denver Health (Denver Health and Hospital Authority) a sprawling, integrated health care facility. It was originally a private hospital but it "bought into" the city government, which caused some problems with procurement so it switched more toward the state and is now a sorta confusing conglomeration of private and public, state and city governed politics. It is governed by an eleven member Board of Directors who are appointed by the Mayor of Denver.
They are a teaching hospital that includes a full range of crisis intervention units. It even has its own Wikipedia page!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denver_Health_Medical_Center?wprov=sfla1https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denver_Health_Medical_Center?wprov=sfla1
Ducks abound.....actually waterfowl of many kind including egrets, geese, dippers, and gulls frequent the Denver area. We're on major migration routes and many species have decided that they like the area so much that going further south is just plain silly.
Like many of the streams in the area, Cherry Creek frequently runs through private areas like this Denver Country Club golf course. Then, I have to find my way around. This circumlocution brought me to my final destination, Alameda Avenue.
This little cascade where the creek passes under University Boulevard and into the golf course is man-made but rather picturesque.
A little down the street, the streams runs alongside Cherry Valley shopping center....
And a little further on I rested at a bus stop as I waited for a ride to the Alameda train station.
The sand bars in the photo indicate that Cherry Creek still carries a considerable load of sediment down to the South Platte River. It travels up to the Missouri that empties into the Mississippi, and then to the Gulf of Mexico and, thus, to the Atlantic Ocean.
This is one of the two big streams in the Denver area and it's fortunate that we have a trail that follows almost it's entire length. There are many natural and historical sites along it.
Streams are fascinating to me. Are there any to explore in your area?
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