Published February 2, 2025 | Updated September 14, 2026
Starting around 1962, the City of Omaha initiated a program of constructing pedestrian bridges aimed at making it safer for children to walk to school. This was at a time when the city’s population had increased 35% during the previous two decades.
The program ended in the early 1980s, the victim of rising construction costs and new regulations designed to make the bridges more accessible. This required that bridge designs be flatter, thereby requiring more land upon which to build — further adding to the cost. The city also cited the cost to maintain the bridges as a factor. By the time the era of building school bridges came to an end, Omaha’s program was said to be one of the largest in the country.
The city even contemplated getting rid of its crown jewel, Dodge Street Overpass which spans Dodge Street from Memorial Park to Elmwood Park. At that time, the city was considering expanding Dodge from five lanes to six.
By my count, there were 22 pedestrian bridges built during that time — 19 of them still stand:
- 13th and Bert Murphy Avenue-no longer standing
- 30th and Binney Street
- 30th and Spaulding Street
- 33rd and Ames Avenue
- 42nd and Grover Street
- 42nd and Hillsdale-no longer standing
- NW Radial Hwy and Hamilton Street
- 48th and Center Street
- 50th and Saddle Creek Road
- 56th and NW Radial Highway
- 60th and Dodge Street
- 66th and Maple Street
- 69th and Blondo Street
- 72nd and Blondo Street-no longer standing
- 72nd and Western Avenue
- 78th and Maple Street
- 86th and West Center Road
- 90th and Western Avenue
- 98th and West Center Road
- 99th and Fort Street
- 108th and West Center Road
- 139th and West Center Road
The locations below were places where the city considered but never built bridges:
- 30th and Ida Street
- 32nd Ave and Center Street
- 42nd and Ames Avenue
- 48th and Q Street
- 52nd and Q Street
- 65th and Military Avenue
- 114th and West Center Road
- Maple and Fontenelle Boulevard
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Omaha Exploration, 2024. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links can be used, if full and clear credit is given to Omaha Exploration with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
Sources
- Omaha World-Herald archives
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