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Farewell to the 6th Street Bridge

Carmen Pulido, right, reclines as others enjoy their time during the 6th Street Bridge Farewell Festival on Saturday. Bands, food trucks, live mural paintings and fireworks were featured. The iconic span has dramatically deteriorated over the decades largely because of a rare chemical reaction in the concrete supports.

Carmen Pulido, right, reclines as others enjoy their time during the 6th Street Bridge Farewell Festival on Saturday. Bands, food trucks, live mural paintings and fireworks were featured. The iconic span has dramatically deteriorated over the decades largely because of a rare chemical reaction in the concrete supports.

  (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

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Hundreds of people gathered on the 6th Street Bridge on Saturday afternoon for a festival to mark the closing of the iconic structure next year.

Farewell to the 6th Street Bridge

Tattoo artist Chuko wears the T-shirt he designed for the 6th Street Bridge Farewell Festival. Demoliltion of the span is scheduled to begin in January and take place over a nine-month period.

  (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Farewell to the 6th Street Bridge

A man named Grant spends a quiet moment below the span while the 6th Street Bridge Farewell Festival goes on above him. The new bridge, a $428-million project expected to open in 2019, will echo the design of the old one.

  (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Farewell to the 6th Street Bridge

Raul Barraza, holding a boa constrictor, joins fellow attendees at the 6th Street Bridge Farewell Festival. Planners imagine the new bridge as one that dedicates equal space to pedestrians, bicyclists and cars and integrates the two very different communities it connects.

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  (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Farewell to the 6th Street Bridge

Members of Marichi Victoria de Jesus, framed by the 6th Street Bridge, make their way to the 6th Street Bridge Farewell Festival, where they performed on Saturday. The new span will echo the design of the old one: a four-lane road framed by curved arches of varying heights following the approximate path of a stone skipped across a pond.

  (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Farewell to the 6th Street Bridge

Visitors attend the 6th Street Bridge Farewell Festival. Residents of Boyle Heights, a low-income, largely Latino community, and those of the affluent Arts District mingled in the center of the bridge, snacking on $4 coffee cake and $1 tacos.

  (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Farewell to the 6th Street Bridge

People are framed within a model of the new 6th Street Bridge during a farewell festival Saturday for the old span. “I wanted to come out and see it one last time,” said an Arts District resident.

  (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

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