This bridge, named after longtime Twin Cities art patron Irene Hixon Whitney, was commissioned for the opening of the Sculpture Garden in 1988. With its two sweeping curved arches that meet in the middle, the bridge serves not only as a pedestrian connection between the Sculpture Garden and Loring Park but also as a work of art in its own right.
On the lintel of the bridge, a poem by John Ashbery is inscribed, which you can read as you walk along the length of the bridge.
And now I cannot remember how I would
have had it. It is not a conduit (confluence?) but a place.
The place, of movement and an order.
The place of old order.
But the tail end of the movement is new.
Driving us to say what we are thinking.
It is so much like a beach after all, where you stand
and think of going no further.
And it is good when you get to no further.
It is like a reason that picks you up and
places you where you always wanted to be.
This far, it is fair to be crossing, to have crossed.
Then there is no promise in the other.
Here it is. Steel and air, a mottled presence,
small panacea
and lucky for us.
And then it got very cool.