Why was ‘The Bridge to Nowhere’ built?

A contractor hired by the Texas Dept. of Transportation is getting ready to demolish the “Bridge to Nowhere,” which was built 47 years ago to connect the Buena Vista Neighborhood south of I-10 to a small neighborhood north of the freeway.

Years later, an earthen dam was built by the Army Corp of Engineers and the neighborhood north of I-10 was bought out. Eventually the ponding area dried up and the Buena Vista Bridge was closed, hence, the “The Bridge to Nowhere” moniker.

The bridge is in west El Paso just south of I-10 and Sunland Park. It will be demolished over the next month, officials said.

The contractor working on the Go 10 project is currently using the bridge to haul supplies back and forth, according to TxDOT. “Right now, it’s serving a purpose. It’s no longer a bridge to nowhere. It’s actually serving a purpose,” Bob Bielek, TxDOT’s district engineer in El Paso, said.

Guille Prieto, a resident of the Buena Vista neighborhood, told ABC-7 he has always wondered what the bridge was for. “There’s no community on the other side,” he said. Prieto said he won’t miss the bridge when it’s gone.

“Back in the late 60s, when the freeway was being built, it was designed to go right through the center of that neighborhood. In order to preserve the continuity of the neighborhood, the bridge was built so people could go back and forth,” Manny Aguilera, a retired TxDOT engineer, said.

Aguilera said the bridge was fenced off when the dam was built so people wouldn’t cross and get into the water on the other side.

When asked if he is going to be sorry to see the bridge go, Aguilera replied, “Not really, because like I said, it was the bridge to nowhere. There’s no use for it.”