Walnut Street Bridge makeover not right color, critics say
- Mason Edwards!
- Jun 22
- 7 min read
By Mason Edwards, Chattanooga Times Free Press
The Walnut Street Bridge's new coat of paint is not the same blue some people remember from the old paint job.
Months into a $35.3 million restoration project, the city unveiled a fresh coat of "Riverpark blue" on part of one of Chattanooga's most recognizable landmarks. The bridge, first built in 1891 and restored as the world's longest pedestrian bridge at the time in 1993, is still scheduled to reopen in late September 2026, but already, the color change sparked confusion and debate.
"That don't look like the paint I put on it," said Garnet Chapin, 76, the architect who helped lead the 1990s revival of the bridge.
From Coolidge Park, he pointed to a nearby bench.
"Looks a lot like that blue," he said.
City officials said the new color isn't an exact replica of the original but a close match chosen to restore the bridge's 1990s appearance while unifying the downtown aesthetic. Chattanooga Parks and Outdoors spokesperson Brian Smith said in a phone interview that Riverpark blue was selected to blend with other park elements like railings, benches and trash cans.
"We're restoring this beloved bridge with a finish that's as close to the original 1993 color as possible," Smith said. "It may not be identical, but it's pretty darn close."
(READ MORE: Here's what you should know about the Walnut Street Bridge's 18-month closure)
Smith said that because the Walnut Street Bridge is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the restoration project must reflect the original conversion design, but he speculated that the original paint color numbers might be "lost in translation somewhere."
"There was a process they went through in trying to match as close as possible the blends of some of the blues that we do have out there and also something that was going to be easy to use and replicate with the type of paint we're using," Smith said.
He said that after decades of sun and weather, the original blue faded into a teal or turquoise – the color many residents associate with the bridge.
"It's probably a shock, but it's a positive shock because we are restoring this beloved bridge that's been loved and recognized all across the world," he said.
Part of the color confusion may also stem from a viral prank. On April Fool's Day, local radio station Hits 96 published a joke article claiming the city planned to repaint the bridge in Tennessee orange. Some readers believed it.
"I thought that it was going to be Tennessee orange," said Brittany Evans, 31, of Red Bank. "But I feel like the blue is a pleasant surprise... a natural upgrade."
COLOR AND MEMORY
Among the shocked citizens is Tish Pyron, 69, of Hill City. She said she walked the bridge daily before its renovation.
"When I think of the walking bridge, that's just not what I think of," she said of the darker color. "You have souvenirs that have the blue bridge on them, the really pretty blue that it was before, in fact, I'm one of the people that does."
Pyron, who moved to Chattanooga in 2020, said she initially believed the darker paint was just a primer coat. When told it was permanent, she said she was disappointed.
"I just didn't like the change," she said. "If it will fade quickly, I guess I can deal ... it sounds like it was that color a lot longer than the navy."
(READ MORE: Chattanooga's Walnut Street Bridge dubbed 'Great Public Space')
Others disagree, like Josh Ingle, a lifelong resident who says he attended the 1993 reopening. He felt the new paint remains faithful to what he saw that day, even getting into a debate on social media over the issue.
"It was funny because he kept saying, 'Oh I've been in the Chattanooga area since the '70s and this is not the original color,' and I was kind of dumbfounded by that statement because it is," Ingle said in a phone interview. "I've seen the gradual fade over time, and I know it is kind of iconic, the more faded color, because we've had a huge influx of population that's never seen it in the original color."
Ingle added that most won't know that before the restoration, the bridge was a dilapidated, rusty, dirty brownish gray – the color of the exposed rusted metal.
"If you paint it more of a pale blue now, then it's gonna fade into something even more different and then you're never gonna be able to get back to zero," Ingle said. "Because then the pale faded even more pale than people are gonna want that even more pale and you're progressively sliding towards white."
Tattoo artist Jennifer Edge, 38, has inked over a dozen Walnut Street Bridges over the years, and she said that while most were black and white, she would mainly mix teal tones for her clients who wanted the bridge. She pushed back against the idea that the old Walnut Street Bridge art is outdated.
"I think a lot of folks, you know, it's like, when we get tattoos, it's about that moment in time, especially the ones that mean something to you," she said. "I think it could end up being a cooler thing to talk about being like, well, it was this color when I got it, but now they've gone back and they've updated it."
Jeanne Trewhitt, 75, who owns A Child's Garden Boutique on Frazier Avenue, said in a phone interview she remembered the bridge being gray as a child in the 1950s. She supports the new blue and said the only complaints she's seen were on social media, where "people love to complain."
"It does seem to be a vibrant color, and when people start walking across the bridge, they're walking to see the river, to enjoy the ambience of the different buskers that they might see scattered out along the bridge playing music," she said in a phone interview. "I think it was a little bit lighter, but to be honest, I like this color."
WHICH BLUE
Still, Chapin maintained that what's applied now to the bridge is not the same shade he chose over 30 years ago, although he doesn't have the files with the names or code of the paint.
The debate between Riverpark blue and the potentially older "Chattanooga blue" that Chapin said he painted the bridge with has happened since the 1990s.
The Chattanooga Times reported in June 1992 that Chapin coined Chattanooga blue and selected the color to symbolize the link between the blue of the Veterans Bridge and the – at the time – green of the Market Street Bridge. Three decades later, while in Coolidge Park, he described it as a blend "of the blue of the sky and green of the water."
His choice drew mixed reactions even then. Developer Jim Gallagher called it "a love-hate thing," estimating that 60% of locals liked the "festive" tone – while others didn't. Chapin rightly predicted that of the two camps – those wanting the bridge lighter and those wanting the bridge darker – the sun would eventually grant the former's wishes.
"They apparently missed that metaphor," Chapin said. "This is not the color that we painted it originally, I don't believe. There are plenty of pictures of it out there."
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The shifting vocabulary adds to the complexity. While some officials call the current color Riverpark blue, others say Chattanooga blue, which Chapin claimed to have coined back in the 1990s. He said the name might have endured, but the shades between the colors have diverged over time.
There was confusion with Chattanooga blue in that there were at least three Chattanooga blue shades at one time.
There was the original bridge color with a hint of green, a separate tone used for the Market Street Bridge and another applied to railings along the riverwalk. Over time, the railing color became the basis for a broader riverfront palette – light posts, trash cans and other fixtures gradually painted to match. Chapin believed the railing approximation, not the original bridge hue, eventually became what people now associate with Riverpark blue.
When Chapin spotted the new white railings on the bridge, he noted that he explicitly remembered painting the old railings gray because white shows dirt too easily – and he wanted to incorporate colors from McCallie and Baylor schools at the time.
LANDMARK
As a beloved symbol of the Scenic City, a convenient thoroughfare between downtown and North Shore and a daily exercise route, the bridge's closure felt bittersweet to many, but structural repairs were needed.
Workers are replacing aging pine boards with original-spec Alaskan cedar and swapping old tension wires with new ones after a recent inspection. The structure is being sandblasted, primed and painted like a factory. Officials ran into a hiccup over the tension wires. Rather than saving some, they all need replacement.
"We're not building a house," Smith said. "It's like painting your house with a paintbrush."
Federal funding for the project was secured before recent policy changes, and Smith said all work remains on schedule, despite heavy rain.
Preservation efforts surrounding the Walnut Street Bridge have long sparked passionate views. Hank Hill, a Chattanooga-born attorney who says he helped stop the bridge's demolition in the late 1970s, also weighed in on the new paint job.
(READ MORE: Before the Walnut Street Bridge became the heart of Chattanooga, it was almost torn down)
"If you're gonna follow the National Historic Preservation Act in its exact terms, it should be the pale blue," Hill said. "That's not my fight, but anybody in City Hall that wants any credibility as being capable of picking the right color should realize it's not the right color and correct it."
Smith clarified in follow-up text messages that the bridge was rusted and exposed steel before its 1990s restoration, and he noted that all permits and approvals were secured at the local, state and federal level.
As for Chapin, the architect who helped revive the bridge in the 1990s, he's willing to let the paint change be water under the bridge.
"It's a nice color of blue," he said. "If the city wants to call that Chattanooga blue, it's their prerogative. Being a McCallie boy, I like all colors of blue."
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