Old South Pearl (Denver, Evans, Elizabeth: neighborhood, cost of, buses)

[denver_hacker]

This is random, but I figure I'll ask.

Anyone know why Old South Pearl in Denver doesn't have a bridge over 25? It seems to me that a somewhat commercial street would benefit and want to have a straight through over 25.

I guess because Logan and Downing are minor arteries/snow routes, it didn't make sense to have Pearl?

[DenverAztec]

I would speculate that it is due to how busy streets like Logan and Downing are from Colfax, through Capitol Hill and out south to Washington Park. Pearl is not a busy street from Colfax through Capitol Hill nor on the southside of I-25. It is really only commercial for a few blocks, similar to Gaylord.

[chilicheesefries]

Cost of bridges is very high, so streets that carry larger amounts of traffic would get bridges since they can't put them on every street. Moreover, those with bridges get much more traffic than the ones without, so that might run the commercial nature with having so many cars driving by all the time (less pedestrian friendly).

[denver_hacker]

Yea, but I would guess the other two are busier now because of the bridges. Were Logan and Downing busier than Pearl when they built I-25 and made the decision regarding the bridges back in the 50s?

S. Pearl had a street car line up until 1950 (the tracks are still under the asphalt) and it had commercial strips, so I would think it was busier back before I-25. If you look at the pics in the library and museums, S. Pearl was really a 'main street' kind of deal. S. Pearl has a lot more commercial blocks than Gaylord, from Alameda down to Evans. And S. Pearl by the Sushi Den and Stellas was in a separate town until annexed by Denver.

Not that any of this matters

[DenverAztec]

There are many area of Denver that have streets similar to Gaylord or Pearl, Tennyson in the Berkeley area comes to mind as does 32nd and Lowell, 32nd and Zuni in the Highlands, Irving and 1st in the Barnum Park neighborhood and 12th and Elizabeth. Parkhill has such streets as well and the commonality for all is that those were areas that were all served by the Denver Trolly/Street cars along with Colfax and with Broadway. God I wished they would have kept them for those are all the areas we need that kind of transportation as light rail is only going to reach a few and buses don't give the feel of a historic city, which is what we are.

It always matters to remember history. !