Group photographs from 2010  reside here:

The Corpus Christi Harbor BridgeWalk started on New Year’s Day 2010 as a private family outing.  A Facebook page was created for the event to make it easier for family members to find out about, and sign up for, the event.  Naïve as I was regarding the proliferation of Social Media events back then I was surprised to find non family members and TV crews turning up on the day.

Asked by Melissa Schroeder of Channel 6 news (now of ABC 13 – WSET) if this will become a regular event I said “yes” without any real thought to the implications and so the BridgeWalk was born.

A small group of about 35 folks met on the first Sunday of the month from February to April of 2010 and walked the bridge for fun. Unfortunately this “new event” coincided with the start of an extended period of maintenance on the bridge and TxDot closed the bridge to pedestrian traffic and the event stalled for over a year.

Unknown to me, Mayor Joe Adame, had taken note of the BridgeWalk event and approached me to arrange a walk on the 4th of July weekend, 2011.  He negotiated with TxDot, had the walkways cleared for pedestrian use, and on Sunday July 3rd Mayor Adame lead 200 folks over the bridge as part of the holiday celebrations.  After the July 3rd walk I was encouraged to keep the event going and so we formed the “BridgeWalk without a Bridge” event which attracted small numbers to walk Shoreline Boulevard in lieu of the bridge.

Mayor Adame and his dog Mercedes attended all of these events. However we were dissapointed that the numbers were so low; the bridge drew more interest than the flat walk along Shoreline which can be done anytime. Mayor Adame’s answer to this problem was to again negotiate with TxDot and arrange for the walkways to be cleared for our use on the first Sunday of each month and the event has gone from strength to strength since that time.

In June 2015 we celebrated the 50th official Harbor BridgeWalk which was attended by Mayor Nelda Martinez and 450 enthusiastic bridge walkers.

One year later and my six year involvement with, and creation of, the Corpus Christi Harbor BridgeWalk was formally acknowledged with a “Commendation” from the Mayor of Corpus Christi, Nelda Martinez. I was also presented with a Texas flag, which has flown over the Capitol building in Austin, by State Representative Todd Hunter.

After the presentation we led a crowd of 475 walkers on the 66th official walk over the bridge (September 2016).

UPDATE:

As of October 2017 I’m back organizing the BridgeWalk; it seems to be something from which you do not retire 🙂