Suicide Bridge

[The Dude]

Anyone remember Suicide Bridge on the east side of Detroit?

[TKshreve]

uhhhhhh............... Ashland Bump?

[Hermod]

I remember when they widened Hayes from two lanes to four lanes south of 8-mile. They didn't reduce the crown of the cross streets. If you drove in the right hand lane, it was like a roller coaster. We kids used to love it when my father drove on Hayes.

[The Dude]

I'm talking about an old pedestrian bridge that went over the Grand Trunk tracks. I think they call it the Dequindre Cut now. I think Jay was the name of the street.

[Detroitnerd]

They keep saying they're going to replace that Fox Creek bridge on Ashland, but, until they do, east-siders will keep testing out the suspension on mom and dad's car.

[GPCharles]

Nothing like getting all 4 wheels off the ground in mom's Plymouth Duster.

[Detroitej72]

I remember when they widened Hayes from two lanes to four lanes south of 8-mile. They didn't reduce the crown of the cross streets. If you drove in the right hand lane, it was like a roller coaster. We kids used to love it when my father drove on Hayes.

I remember that!!!

When I got my driver's license, I took my sister and we would start at 8 Mile and gun it down till about State Fair, in the right lane. We loved the feeling in our stomachs when the car hit the "valley". It's a wonder nobody ever crashed into one of the utility polls that were so close to the curbs.

[EMG]

Just when was Hayes a roller-coaster ride? I used to ride with my grandparents to and from Shopper's Fair up and down that stretch many many times from the mid-60s to the early 70s and I don't ever remember anything unusual about it....

...of course riding with an aged-60-plus GRANDFATHER driving might have had something to do with it. But still...I never thought it was a particularly bad stretch of pavement....

[EMG]

Just had another flashback memory. Closest thing I remember to a "suicide hill" in my childhood was one I used to enjoy going over on my BIKE - it was right around the block from my own house, and it was a rise in the sidewalk where two adjacent slabs of concrete had been pushed smoothly upward by tree roots right in front of 11115 Somerset just south of Morang [[yes, I even remember the address, because in addition to the famous "hill" that house also had a front porch that was painted red). I was able to sometimes get airborn on that hill on my bike although then I had to slam on the brakes pretty quickly before coming to the alley in the back of Pecars!!!!

Later that tree got cut down and eventually later the sidewalk got repaired and is now flat. Even though I had long outgrown riding my bike on the sidewalk by then, I still missed that "hill" due to the associated childhood memories.

[Hermod]

Just when was Hayes a roller-coaster ride? I used to ride with my grandparents to and from Shopper's Fair up and down that stretch many many times from the mid-60s to the early 70s and I don't ever remember anything unusual about it....

...of course riding with an aged-60-plus GRANDFATHER driving might have had something to do with it. But still...I never thought it was a particularly bad stretch of pavement....

This aged 70 year old great grandfather remembers the hills on Hayes. The crowns on the cross streets were not lowered when Hayes was widened, so Hayes from 8-mile to 7-mile had a wide "speed bump" at every intersection in the right lane. The left lane of the four lanes road was the same height as the cross street crown, so there was no hill. The right lanes had a hill which rose from the gutter line of the cross street to the crown and back down to the gutter line. At 35 miles per hour, it was quite a wild feeling.

[goggomobil]

I don't remember the Suicide Bridge, but it sounds fascinating.

Here's a view from above.

It appears to be fenced off and covered, as if it serves a utility like Detroit Edison.

[The Dude]

I 'm talking about a pedestrian bridge over rr tracks. It's been gone for over 40 years. It was by St Joe's church on Orlean and Jay by Gratiot and E Vernor. It's fenced off now.

[The Dude]

I don't remember the Suicide Bridge, but it sounds fascinating.

Here's a view from above.

It appears to be fenced off and covered, as if it serves a utility like Detroit Edison.

Right, I don't think it's been there since the early 1960's. It was for pedestrians only, I think it was wooden, all the other bridges were had vehicular traffic.I remember back in the day if you were driving east on E Lafayette, and you crossed the bridge over the tracks past Orleans St, were slums so bad it makes todays "hoods" look like Disney World .

[Gistok]

This aged 70 year old great grandfather remembers the hills on Hayes. The crowns on the cross streets were not lowered when Hayes was widened, so Hayes from 8-mile to 7-mile had a wide "speed bump" at every intersection in the right lane. The left lane of the four lanes road was the same height as the cross street crown, so there was no hill. The right lanes had a hill which rose from the gutter line of the cross street to the crown and back down to the gutter line. At 35 miles per hour, it was quite a wild feeling.

Hermod... a similar feeling can be gotten today at a Mack Ave. intersection on the far east side [[where Mr. C's Car Wash is located). If you go down Gateshead St. [[in Detroit), and cross Mack Ave. to Grosse Pointe Farms [[where the street name changes to Kirby)... your car could be airborne if you go faster than 25 MPH. Mack Ave. provides one helluva double bump in that intersection [[with a traffic light). Going even 20 MPH gives your cars shocks quite a workout.

[Gianni]

I don't remember a pedestrian bridge, but in that spot now there is pipe bridge. It carries steam pipes over the Dequindre cut that serve the steam utility that heats most of downtown. I'm not sure if the steam is produced at the incinerator, or the steam plant near the old Hudson's warehouse, or both.

[EMG]

Hermod... a similar feeling can be gotten today at a Mack Ave. intersection on the far east side [[where Mr. C's Car Wash is located). If you go down Gateshead St. [[in Detroit), and cross Mack Ave. to Grosse Pointe Farms [[where the street name changes to Kirby)... your car could be airborne if you go faster than 25 MPH. Mack Ave. provides one helluva double bump in that intersection [[with a traffic light). Going even 20 MPH gives your cars shocks quite a workout.

I don't know if I've ever driven across there by car, and it's been at least 20 years, but I did often cross at that intersection while RUNNING [[Gateshead / Kerby was a nice direct line to Lakeshore Drive from the I-94/Cadieux neighborhood where I lived at the time and I used to use it quite a bit on my longer runs) and I remember that the light was VERY SHORT - blink on the green and it was back to red before you knew it. That might have given drivers more incentive to travel through it at "airborne" speeds.

[EastsideAl]

I remember the bridge you're talking about Dude, but I didn't know about folks calling it a "suicide bridge." It remained there for awhile after Lafayette & Elmwood Parks went in, and it was old and rickety. But it would've been hard to commit suicide by just jumping down into that railroad cut - broken ankles would have been a more likely result. Oh, and the slum you're talking about was old Black Bottom.

[kathy2trips]

Three Mile Drive around Windmill Pointe used to be quite the bumpy ride, like the moguls for autos! I'd hit my head on the roof of the car more than often. Seatbelts? I'm supposed to wear those things? Ah, the 70s.....

[The Dude]

I remember the bridge you're talking about Dude, but I didn't know about folks calling it a "suicide bridge." It remained there for awhile after Lafayette & Elmwood Parks went in, and it was old and rickety. But it would've been hard to commit suicide by just jumping down into that railroad cut - broken ankles would have been a more likely result. Oh, and the slum you're talking about was old Black Bottom.

You do know that Black Bottom was named for the soil, right?

[Hermod]

You do know that Black Bottom was named for the soil, right?

I thought it was named for the dance steps.

[Stinger4me]

The wooden foot bridge was on Jay Street. It was just west of the old St. Joseph High School. The bridge was still there in 1965, it replaced a vehicle bridge. The bridge was nowhere wide enough for a vehicle nor sturdy enough. There was a post to prevent any vehicles from crossing it. Most of the homes east of the railroad tracks were gone by the early 60's. The Chene bus crossed the railroad tracks on Antietam which is behind the church. Back then the street layout east of the high school and Orleans was very different than it is today. I recall being on the foot bridge when I steam engine went underneath it. It was broad daylight but I felt as though I was in a black suitcase until the smoke cleared. Hope this helps.

[The Dude]

The wooden foot bridge was on Jay Street. It was just west of the old St. Joseph High School. The bridge was still there in 1965, it replaced a vehicle bridge. The bridge was nowhere wide enough for a vehicle nor sturdy enough. There was a post to prevent any vehicles from crossing it. Most of the homes east of the railroad tracks were gone by the early 60's. The Chene bus crossed the railroad tracks on Antietam which is behind the church. Back then the street layout east of the high school and Orleans was very different than it is today. I recall being on the foot bridge when I steam engine went underneath it. It was broad daylight but I felt as though I was in a black suitcase until the smoke cleared. Hope this helps.

That's the one.