Sixth Street Viaduct, Road bridge in Downtown Los Angeles, United States

The Sixth Street Viaduct is a road bridge linking the Arts District in Downtown Los Angeles with Whittier Boulevard in Boyle Heights, spanning the Los Angeles River, the Santa Ana and Golden State freeways and railroad tracks. The 2022 replacement, designed by Michael Maltzan and the HNTB team, is 950 metres long and 36 metres wide, with pale gray steel arches rising from concrete piers above a deck of dark asphalt marked by double yellow lines.

An earlier bridge opened at this spot in 1932 and became part of the city landscape, but severe cracking in the concrete led to its demolition in 2016. Construction of the replacement began shortly after, and the current crossing opened to traffic in July 2022.

The viaduct has appeared in films and music videos since the 1932 span, including Grease, Terminator 2 and Transformers. A 2024 mixed-media piece by Ithaka Darin Pappas, Colibrís Gigantes en el Puente de la Calle Sexta, shows two giant hummingbirds feeding from cactus flowers growing from the concrete arches. The bridge has also hosted street takeovers.

The deck carries four traffic lanes plus a dedicated public transit lane, with separate bicycle and pedestrian paths and stairs and ramps along the span for getting on and off. The LED lighting that once lit the arches has been dark since copper wiring was stripped by thieves, so the crossing is unlit at night.

The old viaduct appeared in Grease, Terminator 2 and Transformers, and the 2024 mixed-media piece Colibrís Gigantes en el Puente de la Calle Sexta by Ithaka Darin Pappas shows two giant hummingbirds feeding from cactus flowers growing out of the concrete arches. Since opening, thieves have stripped about 7 miles of copper wiring from the LED lighting, leaving the bridge dark.