Saturday morning the final piece of the 400-foot tall arch of the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge was raised and put in place. Monday morning a topping-out ceremony was held on the seventh floor of One Victory Park – in the offices of the law firm, Haynes and Boone. The ongoing construction of the $120 million bridge was visible through the windows as Mayor Tom Leppert and Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison thanked the Hill and Hunt families for their contributions and efforts.  They also acknowledged the Dallas City Council and others like the Trinity River Trust who have supported the bridge’s development the past 10 years.

Senator Hutchison explained that when it came to federal support, the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge never received funding in a presidential budget. So the bridge’s advocates, including Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson, found government funding in other ways — through Texas’ Congressional delegation. The Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge will connect West Dallas with the Woodall Rogers Freeway. It’s one piece in the complicated and controversial Trinity River Corridor Project, which Senator Hutchison extolled.

Designed by architect Santiago Calatrava, the Trinity River span has been called a ‘signature bridge.’ Mayor Leppert claimed it reflected the city’s spirit.

“I think people will look back and see this is a symbol of a period in time when Dallas and North Texas clearly were willing to invest in the city and invest in themselves because, long in the future, this bridge, this arch, is going to be the foreground, the  background of everything.”

The Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge is scheduled to open in 2011.