The Shakespeare Bridge Party Is Over. Its 100th Birthday Month Isn't.

The Franklin Hills Residents Association's centennial parade was set for noon on Saturday, Oct. 10, followed by a block party from 1 to 4 p.m. in the Monon Street cul-de-sac under the span. The calendar is still open, though. Robert Metcalf, the contractor, started the job in 1924, and his daughter's 1973 account, quoted by the Los Feliz Improvement Association, says it was finished in October 1926. That puts the actual hundredth birthday inside the month we're in now.

The story of the bridge has always been about who pays for it and who tends it, and so far the answer has been the people who live around it. A loop on foot takes you past nearly everything neighbors have built, planted and hung on it over the last hundred years.

Neighbors Paid for It in 1926 and Still Do

The city's own engineers designed the bridge. J.C. Wright of the Bureau of Engineering drew it, and Metcalf built it for $59,960. Neighbors covered the cost through a special assessment district rather than the general fund. The Los Angeles Times called that assessment controversial in its Oct. 2 centennial preview. The bridge is 262 feet long and 30 feet wide and crosses a ravine about 35 feet deep. It was built so Franklin Avenue could reach the Ivanhoe District, which most people now call Franklin Hills.

The neighbors never stopped paying. The Franklin Hills Residents Association pays for the landscaping on the nearby traffic island. Its members tore out the city's blacktop median and planted it. Since 2017, neighbors have also kept up a garden underneath the span. FHRA president Alison Wallace told the Times the bridge "helped us become a community."

The Los Feliz Improvement Association's monument file gives these dates.

On paper its name is still the Franklin Avenue Bridge, and nobody knows where "Shakespeare" came from. Shirley Mims, a longtime FHRA member, told the Los Feliz Improvement Association in 2021 that the nickname already shows up in the monument file from the 1970s, and that research into its source has turned up nothing. The plaque on one of the entrance turrets doesn't settle it either. It just calls the structure "a picturesque, useful span serving Franklin Avenue."

Walk It in the Order the Neighbors Built It

The loop below starts on the deck, drops into the ravine and climbs back out on the stairs. That's also the rough order of the bridge's history, from city project to neighborhood project.

1. Cross from the St. George Street end and stop mid-span. Find the plaque on the entrance turret before you start. There are eight turrets in all. In the Times piece, the writer describes stopping mid-span for the downtown skyline to the south. Below you are the homes and yards along Monon Street and Myra Avenue, and the Los Feliz campus of the International School of Los Angeles, which the Times notes is the only school John Lautner designed.
2. Head down to the garden. Weekend Sherpa's walking route takes St. George, then Lyric, then Monon to the Shakespeare Bridge Garden at the end of Monon Street, under the span. Volunteers keep it going. FHRA has held cleanup mornings at 1903 Monon, weeding and cutting back overgrowth. Homes sit right next to the garden, so stay on the street and keep your voice down.
3. Look at the ravine as a creek bed. The bridge crosses the Arroyo de Sacatela, which once flowed above ground through what is now Koreatown and Hancock Park on its way to Ballona Creek. Now it runs into a storm drain. FHRA's history says the upper creek was moved into a concrete storm drain around 1916. Storm runoff still follows the buried channel.
4. Climb out on the stairs. Stair segments are described in the next section.
5. Finish at Franklin and Talmadge. That's the corner just west of the bridge entrance where Matteo's Matcha sets up.

The Stairs Turn One Bridge Into a Loop

The bridge carries cars over the ravine. The public stairways get you in and out of it on foot, and they're why the Shakespeare Bridge works as a workout rather than a photo stop. The Los Angeles Times staircase guide maps two loops in the hills around it.

Franklin Hills West: the Radio-Prospect Loop

• Prospect Walk starts just past 3976 Prospect and climbs in stages to Deloz, Hollyvista and Franklin.
• Radio Walk comes down off the hillside near Franklin in two flights to Hollyvista and Deloz.
• An 85-step connector links the end of Sanborn Avenue to Franklin Avenue, so the climb can end close to the bridge.

Franklin Hills East: the Lyric Loop

• Stairs go down from Mayview to Udell. On the way back up, a 111-step flight starts at 3838 Udell, a walkway crosses Hyperion Gulch, and a separate 96-step flight finishes at 2040 Mayview.
• A 43-step stairway links the Sunset Drive cul-de-sac to Sanborn Avenue.
• A 41-step stairway drops from the end of Sanborn to Clayton.

The Times published these routes in January 2023, so check a segment before you count on it. Combine one loop with the deck and the garden and you've covered the bridge from above, from below and from the hillside streets it was built to reach. For how this corner fits with the rest of the neighborhood, our guide to Los Feliz pocket areas near Griffith Park lays out the map. If you'd like to make walking a bigger part of your week, our piece on car-light living in Los Feliz is a good next read.

A Bridge That Changes Its Clothes

The neighbors' upkeep is easiest to see on the railings. The Times describes a tradition begun by neighbor Chris Boutelle. FHRA board members and volunteers put up hearts for Valentine's Day, shamrocks for St. Patrick's Day, Pride and Juneteenth flags in June, and flags and bunting before July 4. FHRA has also posted about fall decorations going up on both ends of the bridge. An October walk has a decent chance of catching the seasonal version.

The bridge also has a film career. The Times lists "Dead Again" in 1991, "I Love You, Man" in 2009, and two 2025 series, Netflix's "Nobody Wants This" and HBO's "I Love L.A." It also mentions a 1971 "Mannix" chase scene shot before the median was planted. If you recognize the turrets on screen, that's why.

Plenty of people who live a few miles away have never heard of it. Charlie Ryan of LA Explained told the Times that most people on his Los Feliz walking tour "don't know it's there," and that of all his tours, this one "brings the most surprise to people." The LA Explained Los Feliz tour lists 11 a.m. sessions on Nov. 18 and Nov. 21 at $29.99, and the listing showed them sold out. For people who live here, the loop above is free.

The Stop at the End

Matteo Chizzola has been running Matteo's Matcha for about a year at the corner of Franklin Avenue and Talmadge Street, just west of the bridge entrance. He serves milky matcha drinks and mint matcha lemonade, according to LAist. LAist lists typical hours as Friday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., and says to check the stand's Instagram for changes. Chizzola told the Times that at sunset the view from the bridge is "incredible." He closes at 3, so start the stairs after lunch, buy a drink before he packs up, and come back to the bridge at dusk.

The bridge was built to connect Franklin Avenue to the Franklin Hills streets this loop climbs through. If you own on those blocks, or are thinking about the hillside streets between Prospect and Sanborn, Bigtown Homes can walk you through what that kind of property involves before you make a move. Schedule a strategy call.