Pedestrian Bridge Users Can Be Barefoot -- or Bare-Bottomed

The slim and the squishy, the young and the old climbed the stairs, then ceremoniously dropped their robes, shorts and towels to march au naturel across what is hailed as the world’s first nude bridge.

The procession of about 100 nudists last week celebrated the completion of the pedestrian bridge spanning Palm Springs’ Indian Canyon Drive, one of the city’s main thoroughfares.

Constructed as a passage linking two sides of the nudist Desert Shadows Inn Resort & Villas, the bridge is now also touted as a grand entrance to the city.

“I think it’s a beautiful piece of art,” said Betty Edwards, 73, of Laguna Woods, a condo owner at the resort who, with her husband, Walt, stripped down to cross the bridge. “It’s also a nice gateway into Palm Springs.”

Traffic buzzes below and the San Jacinto Mountains loom above as the nudists cross. Motorists beneath can see none of the fanfare.

With sea-green rails and beige-and-green canvas panels, the bridge was designed to display pleasant architectural features while obscuring anatomical ones. Metal mesh wings stretch from its sides, echoing similar design elements at the Palm Springs Airport.

The sailcloth panels that line the railings are double-layered, said Desert Shadows marketing director Barry Gumaer.

“We found with one layer, you could see shadows,” he said. “Needless to say, there were outlines of things that made attention-getters.”

The novel walkway has gained worldwide attention, generating mention in news outlets ranging from the Anchorage Daily News to the BBC. It became the butt, so to speak, of television gags: “Tonight Show” host Jay Leno joked that he wouldn’t want to be the toll collector on that bridge.

Resort officials don’t shrink from the smirks, pointing out that the number of reservations at the resort has jumped threefold over this time last year. Yet although they don’t object to the publicity, they profess bewilderment at the bridge’s notoriety.

“We still haven’t figured out why it’s such an international story,” owner Stephen Payne said. He points out that local objectors to the bridge were more concerned with its architectural impact than its users’ lack of apparel.

“The nudist aspect was never a part of it,” he said. “The question was, does it work with the city, the skyline?”

Even neighboring businesses that support the bridge acknowledge that their sole misgiving was an aesthetic one.

Bo Snyder, owner of the Left Bank restaurant, kittycorner from Desert Shadows, said that although the bridge is not an eyesore, a tunnel would have been best.

“There’s something a little obtrusive about a bridge anywhere,” he said. Nonetheless, he conceded, “It’s certainly better than having people walk with no clothes on up to the traffic light and cross the street.”

Robert Rioseco, 37, a dentist from Greenwich, Conn., and first-time guest at Desert Shadows, has frequented nude resorts around the world with his young family.

Rioseco said he believes it will help his children grow up unencumbered by body image problems.

“I think it’s great that the municipality was into it,” he said. “It would never happen in Connecticut.”