Demolition crews made major progress on Wednesday dismantling the Friendship Trail Bridge. Work started at the hump and is moving in both directions towards shore.
This marks the end of a lengthy and sometimes tense battle residents waged to try to restore the 59-year-old structure.
Kevin Thurman helped lead the group and says it was a learning experience.
"Every time you see somebody tear something down like that, it's a lesson," Kevin said. "If we're going to want to be able to keep access to things like that open, we have to plan well. And we have to do things smartly form the beginning."
The former Gandy Bridge was built in 1956. Nearly 40 years later, a newer span was built and officials turned the old bridge into a pedestrian bridge. Hundreds of thousands of cyclists, joggers and skaters crossed it annually until 2008 when engineers said it was structurally unsafe.
Thurman says what his group did is leave a legacy for the Friendship Trail Bridge.
"Honestly, all of us who worked together on this, got to know each other and have gone on to do other things and every single time you try to push people to a positive vision for something, it only ends up yielding good results," Thurman said.
In fact, one of the architects who helped design the restoration plan for the bridge has gone on to help design the new Pier Park, which will replace the inverted pyramid in St. Petersburg.
It's expected to take 16 months to tear down and remove all remnants of the old bridge, at a cost of $9.36 million.