What US bridge has the highest average daily foot traffic? I want to say the Madison St. Bridge in Chicago, but I can’t find anything to verify this. Anyone know for sure?
How big does the bridge have to be to count?
It’s probably some “bridge” that people don’t think about - like a bridge in the middle of Disneyworld or maybe some airport.
And are you counting things like pedestrian bridges over a street leading to an elevated train stop or connecting a parking garage to a building?
Well, the bridge which the OP mentions has some of that: it’s a street bridge across the Chicago River, just west of the Loop, but it’s adjacent to two commuter-train stations, and thus, has a ton of foot traffic during rush hours.
I’m thinking of pretty much any bridge over water. The one I mentioned, the Madison St. Bridge, is only 220 feet long. Average daily foot traffic in 1999 was 41,586. I have not been able to confirm with any cite that it has the highst foot traffic in the US, it just seems like something I remember hearing.
Not even in the hunt, but theWashington Avenue Bridge between the East and West bank of the Universtiy of Minnesota campus has the highest foot traffic and bicyclist count in Minneapolis. It is a two deck bridge, with the upper deck being exclusively for pedestrians and bicyclists and includes a semi enclosed center section to provide shelter from poor weather conditions. The lower deck is currently for automobile and bus traffic, but is in the process of being retrofitted with rails to carry a new light rail line in addition to buses and autos.
If you accept that definition, then I’m going to bet it’s one of these footbridges in the middle of WDW’s Magic Kingdom. According to this site, Magic Kingdom had an estimated 17.2 million visits in 2009, for an average daily foot traffic of 47,123.
In addition to the fact that many people walk over them many more times than once per day. Although it’s also true that some may not walk over any one given bridge at all in a given day, so that might balance it out to some extent.
I remembering when I used to live in downstate NY and I went to the local train station I had to walk on a bridge to get over the tracks and into the station. This station was part of the main commuter system in NYC so there were thousands of people who walked over that bridge every day.
And that was just one station along the route. If there was a similar pedestrian bridge in Grand Central Station, it probably had literally a million people crossing it each day.