The stunning Liberty Bridge, which offers the greatest view of the city’s famous falls, curves gently above the Reedy River. The bridge features a curving transparent span across the river that arcs away from the falls, creating an aerial amphitheater from which tourists may see the flowing water. The path slowly descends down into the valley, providing unimpeded vistas. With a total length of 345 feet (105 meters) and a clear span of 200 feet (61 meters), the bridge appears to hover over the countryside. Richard Pearis, Greenville’s first European immigrant, founded his trading station in 1768, just below the bridge at the 28-foot Reedy River Falls. Later, he erected a grist and saw mills on the same site, which remained the center of early Greenville manufacturing until the 1920s. The Liberty Bridge in Greenville is a one-of-a-kind memorial to W. Liberty, the founder of the Liberty Corporation. Francis M. Hipp, Herman N. Hipp, B. Calhoun Hipp, and Dorothy Hipp Gunter, and their children, Frank Hipp, and his children, for their dedication and service to the Greenville community. It is a pleasure to wander along because of its contemporary construction and the views it provides of the river, trees, and falls below. The pedestrian bridge was built in 2004 and is supported by two slanted towers and a single suspension cable. It stretches 345 feet and divides the city in two, spanning the width of the wooded valley that surrounds the Reedy River. The bridge appears to hover above the countryside and is magnificently lighted up at night thanks to its creative, award-winning design. Taylor and Murphy Construction Co. of Asheville, N.C., built the Liberty Bridge during a 12-month period, with bridge architect Miquel Rosales of Boston designing it and Schlaich Bergermann engineering it. A single suspension rope supports the concrete reinforced deck, which is 345 feet long, 12 feet wide, and 8 inches thick. The deck’s characteristic curve has a radius of 214 feet and is cantilevered toward the waterfall from exterior support cables. Over the river, the bridge deck similarly slopes 12 feet, or 3%, from east to west. The bridge is supported and held in place by three principal cable systems that operate together and against each other. Three 80-millimeter-diameter “ring” cables run beneath the deck, providing support and compressing it in the horizontal plane. The 28-millimeter hanger cables function both horizontally and vertically against and with the ring cables. The catenary or main wire supports the hanger cables, which are placed at 35 to 60 degrees from vertical. The main cable is really three independent 80-millimeter cables, two of which stretch from the abutment blocks to the steel mast and one of which spans from mast to mast at the span’s center. The two 90-foot-tall masts each weigh more than 28 tons and tilt 15 degrees away from the bridge. The masts are held in place by backstay wires that are 80 millimeters long. At the abutments, mast, and backstay foundations, steel piles, and rock anchors buried 70 feet deep in bedrock transfer bridge weights to the earth.

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