The Colorado Street Bridge from “The Bachelor”

When Juan Pablo Galavis and Chelsie Webster went bungee jumping off of Pasadena’s Colorado Street Bridge in the recently-aired Season 18 episode of The Bachelor titled “Soccer Date,” I found myself wondering, “How did I miss the filming?”  Although it has been over a year now, I still have to remind myself that the Crown City is no longer home.  (The Grim Cheaper is convinced that all the blonde hair dye I use has finally started to affect my brain.  )  I happened to drive under the famed bridge while visiting Pasadena last week and got to thinking that it would make for a good Valentine’s-themed post (even though, per Reality Steve, Juan Pablo and Chelsie do not wind up together), so I pulled over to snap some pics.  (The GC also “loaned” me a bunch of photos he took of the structure years ago.)

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The Colorado Street Bridge was designed by the Kansas City, Missouri-based engineering firm Waddell & Harrington.  Construction on the 1,467.5-foot-long, two-lane structure was completed in 1913.  The bridge, which towers 148.5-feet above the Arroyo Seco, is an architectural marvel boasting 11 Beaux Arts arches, ornamental clustered light posts and an iron balustrade.  Shockingly, the magnificent, curving span was almost demolished in 1953 following the completion of the adjacent Pioneer Bridge, which connects the 134 and 210 freeways.  The site was saved thanks to a letter-writing campaign and is now on the National Register of Historic Places.

Due to structural deterioration, the Colorado Street Bridge was closed to traffic in 1989 and a $27-million restoration project subsequently begun.  The site was re-opened on December 13th, 1993 – the 90-year anniversary of its original completion.

  

The span is often referred to as the “Suicide Bridge” because more than 100 people have jumped to their deaths from it over the years, most during the 1930s in the midst of the Great Depression.  While a wrought-iron suicide-prevention fence was installed at the time of the 1989 renovation, it has not halted the most determined troubled souls – thirteen people have jumped from the bridge since 2006 alone.

In the “Soccer Date” episode of The Bachelor, Juan Pablo first takes Chelsie to sample Venezuelan delicacies at Amara Chocolate & Coffee (located at 55 South Raymond Avenue in Old Town).

The two then head over to the Colorado Street Bridge where, after a considerable amount of hemming and hawing on Chelsie’s part, they embark on a tandem bungee jump.

The Bachelor is hardly the first production to make use of the picturesque site.  The bridge has appeared in countless productions over the years – far too many for me to ever chronicle here.  But I’ve compiled a few of the highlights.  Way back in 1921, Charlie Chaplin featured the structure in his movie The Kid (which starred Jackie Coogan, grandfather of Keith Coogan, my girl Pinky Lovejoy’s husband.)

The Colorado Street Bridge showed up very briefly at the beginning of the 2005 romantic comedy Rumor Has It, in the scene in which Sarah Huttinger (Jennifer Aniston) and Jeff Daly (Mark Ruffalo) first arrived in Pasadena.

The bridge was where Carl (Jim Carrey) bungee jumped – and took a phone call – in 2008’s Yes Man.

Jim Carrey actually performed the stunt himself for the scene.  You can watch a behind-the-scenes video of it being shot by clicking below.

In the Season 4 episode of The Closer titled “Fate Line,” which aired in 2009 (and which I got to watch being filmed – you can read my set report here), horror film producer Sean Thompson died in a car accident underneath the Colorado Street Bridge.

In the Season 2 episode of The Mentalist titled “The Scarlet Letter,” which also aired in 2009 (and which I also watched being filmed – you can read that set report here), the Colorado Street Bridge masqueraded as the Sacramento-area bridge where the body of Kristin Marley (Kristine Blackport) was found.

The structure was where two sisters killed themselves in another 2009 production – the Season 1 episode of Lie to Me (a series I absolutely loved) titled “Depraved Heart.”

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Until next time, Happy Stalking! 

Stalk It: The Colorado Street Bridge, where Juan Pablo and Chelsie bungee jumped on The Bachelor, is located on West Colorado Boulevard, in between South Orange Grove Boulevard and North San Rafael Avenue, adjacent to the 134 Freeway, in Pasadena.