First look atop Rock Island Bridge’s entertainment district

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — A first of its kind project connecting Kansas City, Missouri and Kansas City, Kansas is nearing completion. The Rock Island Bridge over the Kansas River will serve as a trailhead and have a 700 foot long entertainment district.

FOX4 got a first look atop the bridge Wednesday evening.

The idea for the project got its beginnings more than a decade ago on a boat trip by the founder who joked the old railroad bridge should have a restaurant called “Chicken on a Bridge” Now it is set to have a whole lot more.

Michael Zeller’s vision is for a booming thriving entertainment district on an otherwise abandoned railroad bridge built to serve the Kansas City stockyards in 1905.

“For a long time they called me the crazy bridge guy. But lately I’ve dropped the crazy and I’m just going by the bridge guy,” Zeller joked.

That’s because the 35,000 square foot bridge renovations are nearly complete.

“We’ve done the hard part. We raised the bridge, we widened it, we put this top deck on it. Now they are doing the relatively quick and easy part, they are building these light weight buildings,” Zeller said.

Those buildings include a 70-foot long central kitchen, two bars and plans for seating for 700 to 800 people. Zeller said he envisions everything from people reading books and having a drink to concerts and weddings.

While some may have seen this sort of infrastructure renewal as a wild idea, Alan van Capelle isn’t among them. He’s the executive director of New York City’s The Highline. It is a 1.5 mile long elevated Manhattan park on railroad tracks now visited by seven million people a year. He was one of the first to see the bridge’s progress Wednesday.

“I get goosebumps because I can’t wait to come here 5 years from now and see how it’s transformed this entire area,” van Capelle said.

He spoke at a private event Wednesday for those involved in the philanthropic, public and private funding for the $16 million project.

“I hope the folks here in Kansas City know the rest of the country is looking at what’s happening here because there isn’t a project like this in the rest of the country and I think this can be replicated,” van Capelle said.

Opening for the Rock Island Bridge is slated for sometime later this summer.

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