Gathering To Say Farewell To LA’s 6th Street Bridge

The 6th Street bridge has always been a landmark of the Los Angles skyline, but on Wednesday 27th January it closed forever. A victim of a form of “concrete cancer”, the deteriorating structure has been deemed an earthquake risk and will be torn down over the next several months to be replaced by a new bridge. I personally became familiar with the bridge after filming many “spirited” runs over and around it with my good friend Magnus Walker. Having lived right next to the bridge for over 20 years it has become part of his daily life, a place each and every one of his cars has been put through their paces. I happened to be in Los Angeles last week when he called and said he was thinking of having a get together to commemorate it.

After a couple of Instagram posts it was set for 9pm, under the bridge. We weren’t sure what to expect, but after people started calling around 8pm saying there were no more spots, it seemed as though people had gotten the word. As I walked over to the event and saw a Chevy Caprice lowrider on three wheels rolling under the bridge, I knew this wasn’t going to be an average car meet. Around 100 cars and 500 people must have turned up from all walks of the automotive world. There were a slew of VW Beetles, Japanese tuner cars, old Volvos, American Muscle, British classics, Italian and German classics from Alfa’s to Mercedes and of course a healthy dose of Porsches.

Magnus arrived to a crowd of fellow car enthusiasts and spent his time talking with everyone that showed up and thanking them for coming out. He took pictures, signed autographs and made people feel at home. People had come from wide and far including Matt Hummel who’d traveled from Northern California in his awesome 1956 356, he was really cool and did not seem fazed by his 7 hour drive in a sixty year old Porsche. As I strolled around enjoying the wide variety of cars and meeting friends new and old, what struck me the most was that it all came about from Magnus making a social media post a couple of days earlier. His Instagram post said “all are welcome” and that’s what made it so special. This wasn’t a stuffy car show with any awards at stake, nor it was it your average cars and coffee where the donuts are more interesting than the cars, this was a real gathering of enthusiasts who loved their cars and the community they are part of. It truly represented the diversity of LA’s car culture and was fitting way to say farewell to the bridge. No cops came, everybody was nice, it was a really great meet. In fact, I’d say it was better than any official car show I’ve ever been to.

The video above, and pictures of the event below, were made possible by the following people: Dan Millwood @leftcoastcars, Hector Levario @hector_levario, @ragingduck and @cinemotive_scott. As for the story itself, you can thank Porsche fanatic Frazer Spowart who is the Director of Films at eGarage and has worked with Magnus Walker since 2013 on over a dozen projects. You can see his more of his work here – eGarage.com