$30M University of Memphis pedestrian bridge vandalized

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The $30 million pedestrian bridge on the University of Memphis campus has been vandalized.

The Land Bridge, located on Southern Avenue, opened in 2019. It was created as a walkway for students to cross over the railroad tracks from the student parking garage to get to campus.

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The university says on November 20 at 9:54 a.m., officers responded to the vandalism on the Land Bridge, which was spray painted with blue and black paint. They also stated that the Physical Plant was notified and cleanup should happen soon.

A tweet by the U of M Confession page was posted on December 4 saying, “Spray painting the bridge is crazy. A lot of y’all lack basic manners and respect for things that don’t belong to you.”

That tweet prompted other students to comment in agreeance.

“It’s kind of an eye sore really,” said Yaphet Hearn, a University of Memphis student. “It’s not a real good sight to see.”

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This fairly new bridge is said to be a “hot spot” for students to take their graduation pictures. And with graduation being two weeks away, some students are not happy about the spray paint in the middle of the bridge.

“It’s ugly,” said Calum Tuttle, a University of Memphis student. “It’s just honestly a blight on that bridge at this point.”

Melek Robinson, a senior at the university says he had also planned to take his senior pictures on the bridge but now he has to change his location due to the vandalism.

“It’s very stupid and considering I was going to take my graduation pictures on that bridge it kind of ruined the plans,” Robinson said. “So now I have to go to plan B instead. It just kind of ruins the whole flow of things.”

Another student says she was not surprised to hear about the bridge being spray painted.

“I feel like that’s normal. I feel like we already can’t have anything on this campus anyways without something being ruined,” said Paige Walker, a University of Memphis student.

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Walker also says she was not surprised that the university has not addressed the incident publicly.

“It’s not fair to the seniors because that’s a really cute graduation picture area. The vandalism isn’t cute,” Walker said. “Next semester there has to be more alerts. Like we have to know about everything when it happens. I can’t know things from another student. That’s not reliable.”

President David Rudd said that the entire project, including a multi-level garage that replaced surface parking on Southern, cost between $35 million and $38 million. He said it was paid for with a student fee that has generated about $20 million since it was initiated four years ago.

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