Added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 25, 2024

Head east on Riverside Drive out of Toluca Lake, past Warner Bros. Studios, past Walt Disney Studios, and things start to change. A leafy business district turns into a leafier residential district. Then you pass a marker welcoming you to the Rancho Equestrian Neighborhood. Then the “Caution Horses” signs start popping up, and inevitably, you pass by your first horse and rider, clip-clopping down the street like the cars that supplanted them never existed. 

A horse is a fantastical enough creature that even a small horseward shift in Burbank’s horse-to-car ratio makes a big impact. It’s more than the mere presence of these beautiful animals that makes the neighborhood unique, though. It’s the way an entire mini-economy still exists to support equestrian culture, with stables, horse rental services, tack and feed shops and the massive LA Equestrian Center, all within trotting distance.

This community has fought for generations to maintain its horseback riding culture. So it seems spiritually appropriate that one of its most enduring landmarks is the Mariposa Street Bridge, a simple 169-foot suspension bridge that has barely changed in the 85 years since it was built.

The Mariposa Street Bridge was erected in 1939 to connect the equestrian communities of Burbank and Glendale with the extensive bridle trails in Griffith Park, just across the LA River. The previous year, the Army Corps of Engineers had begun sheathing the river in concrete to try and prevent the kind of disastrous flooding that occurred in March of 1938. One of the consequences was that many of the natural crossings riders had used were either destroyed, or blocked by concrete walls and mounds of dirt, scooped out from the riverbed. 

According to a 1938 article in the Los Angeles Times, a committee led by attorney Paul Palmer gathered several thousand signatures to petition the Burbank City Council for a bridge. Even the famous “singing cowboy” Gene Autry wrote a letter of support for the project. And in their meeting of August 23, 1938, the City Council unanimously resolved to ask LA County and the US Engineering Department for a bridge.

WHEREAS, there is situated adjacent to Riverside Drive in the City of Burbank a considerable number of Riding Academies, and people who reside in said community, and in other sections of the City of Burbank, have heretofore been accustomed to traverse the Los Angeles River to use the bridge paths in Griffith Park…

WHEREAS, much of the value of said property adjacent to the Los Angeles River and Riverside Drive will be depreciated by reason of the inability of the equestrians to have a means of egress and ingress to the bridle trails of the said Griffith Park,

NOW, THEREFORE, be it resolved by the Council of the City of Burbank that the Board of Supervisors of the County of Los Angeles, be urged to provide a suitable bridge for pedestrians and equestrians, or that some other suitable method be provided whereby the equestrians may have means of egress and ingress across the Los Angeles River to the bridle trail in Griffith Park.

-Resolution No. 1671 of the Burbank City Council, August 23, 1938

The LA County Board of Supervisors agreed to appropriate $13,000 from county right-of-way funds for the bridge’s construction, and a scant seven months later, the bridge formally opened with a dedication ceremony. The Burbank Legionnaires raised a flag, the LA High School Boys’ Band played some tunes, and a group of riders from the Griffith Park side and the Burbank side met in the middle to celebrate this “surrealistic creation of gleaming aluminum-coated bars and metal netting, anchored to the river banks with unconcealed spun cables,” as the Los Angeles Times described it.

The Mariposa Street Bridge was an outgrowth of the horse people that settled in “the Riverbottom,” as they called the nexus of Burbank, Glendale and Los Angeles in the early 1900s. At its height in the ‘40s, you had your choice of 13 horsemanship schools in the area.

Burbank and Glendale re-zoned parts of the Riverbottom specifically for commercial-equestrian use, and later extended that into the residential neighborhoods, too. The Fritz B. Burns Company started advertising its “Riverside Ranchos” in the ‘30s, a unique housing development with a stable at the back of many of the lots. Up through the ‘70s, you’d see classified ads calling out stables and the nearby horse trails as selling points. 

Follow the river from Los Feliz north and west as it curves around Griffith Park to Warner Bros. studio. The stables are thick as ticks and within rifle range of the river. The geographical center of this horsy holiness is Bette Davis’ home, situated where the river bends to the west beyond the Grand Central Airport. Here the horse is supreme.

-Edward Thompson, “HOSS AUCTION” (Los Angeles Times, June 2, 1940)

Mariposa Street Bridge made its mark on Hollywood, too, especially when it came to filming westerns. Just east of the Riverbottom were The Republic Studios and CBS Studio Center, where shows like The Rifleman, Gunsmoke and Rawhide were shot. You also had Universal Studios with a large ranch property close by and, of course, Warner Bros. Studios.

With its central location and its surplus of famous horsemen and horses, the Riverbottom was a great place to find and train actors, stuntmen and steeds for your next western film or TV show…and the bridge was the perfect conveyance to get them across the river to Griffith Park, which hosted dozens of western film shoots from the ‘30s onwards. 

Functionally, the Mariposa Street Bridge of 2024 is identical to its 1939 self. When I last visited, a group of riders crossed the bridge and dismounted at Studio Horse Rental, right at the mouth of the bridge. It’s still a popular route for riders heading south from the residential neighborhoods, and north from Griffith Park – one video from June of 2023 captured 167 horses crossing in three hours. 

Visually, it’s the same steel trusses and cables, the same concrete blocks and chain link fencing that you would have seen in 1939. The only upgrade was in 2001, when the timber deck was replaced with three layers of pressure-treated Douglas fir.

They’ve also added signage atop the steel towers on either side. As of 2016, that includes a “Bicycles Prohibited” sign, the result of a contentious battle between local equestrians and cyclists (you can probably guess which side got its way). One bike advocate named Doug Weiskopf was so incensed by the bike ban that he deliberately broke the ordinance multiple times, in hopes of challenging the law in court. Weiskopf ended up dropping his fight in 2018, and the city diverted his ~$1000 in fines. 

The bike ban is just one example of how fiercely the equestrian community around here has fought to protect its way of life. In 1986, residents of the Burbank Rancho neighborhood spoke out against the conversion of a horse-boarding stable into a storage facility, just east of Mariposa Street; the conversion collapsed when Burbank’s Planning Board denied a permit. That same year, Glendale equestrians formed an organization to fight against the demolition of Silver Spur Stable, which a Beverly Hills developer wanted to turn into condos. That one failed too. 

More recently, Rancho activists successfully lobbied CA state senators to write an exemption into Senate Bill 423. The law would have made it easier for developers to fast-track housing projects; thanks to the amendment, there’s now an exemption for equestrian districts. It was an important win at a time when cowboys throughout LA County are concerned that their culture is being threatened by gentrification, inflation, rampant development and what they see as draconian code enforcement by local officials. In late 2023, the LA City Council unanimously voted to ban rodeos (the decision only applies to the City of Los Angeles, not the rest of LA County). 

For riders who frequently use the Mariposa Street Bridge, the latest battle hits close to home. There’s a plan to build a multi-story condo at 910 Mariposa Street on the former site of Circle K Riding stables, less than 50 feet away from the bridge’s north approach. Two groups, Friends of the Equestrian Bridge and Cancel the Condos, are trying to raise awareness about the project’s impact on local equestrian culture and the habitat around the proposed condo site. 

It will never cease to amaze me how a basic piece of infrastructure can pack so many layers of history into its simple frame, and maintain its relevance for so long. The Mariposa Street Bridge still serves an important role to LA riders, and the local equestrian economy. And it continues to be at the center of local political battles that impact the equestrian way of life. Long may it swing. 

Sources & Recommended Reading

+ Arellano, Gustavo: “Column: Horse lovers to L.A. County: Leave us alone” (Los Angeles Times, May 15, 2023)

+ Braxton, Greg: “VALLEY NEWS: Victory for Equestrian Interests Burbank Moves to Limit Development in Rancho” (Los Angeles Times, May 19, 1988 – via ProQuest)

+ Braxton, Greg: “Conversion of Burbank Stable Rejected” (Los Angeles Times, October 30, 1986 – via ProQuest)

+ Carpio, Anthony Clark: “Burbank bicyclist welcomes citation for breaking the law at disputed bridge” (Burbank Leader via Los Angeles Times, May 27, 2016)

+ “Classified Ad 86 – No Title” (Los Angeles Times, April 28, 1974 – via ProQuest)

+ Burbank City Council: “Resolution No. 1671 (August 23, 1938 – via City of Burbank Public Records Portal)

+ burbank.saveglendaleriversiderancho.com

+ cancelthecondos.com

+ Carpio, Anthony Clark: “Burbank bicyclist welcomes citation for breaking the law at disputed bridge” (Los Angeles Times, May 27, 2016 – via ProQuest)

+ Dodge, Marian: “Mariposa Street Bridge: A Unique Historic Place” (The Griffith Reporter, Summer-Fall 2024)

+ “Equestrian Bridge Ready: Jessup to Preside at Dedication Saturday of Griffith Park Span” (Los Angeles Times, March 16, 1939 – via ProQuest)

+ friendsoftheequestrianbridge.org

+ Garland, Chad: “Bikes banned from Mariposa Street bridge” (Burbank Leader via Los Angeles Times, February 12, 2016)

+ Hamilton, Denise: “VALLEY NEWS: Glendale Board Rejects Plan to Demolish Stable, Erect Condos” (Los Angeles Times, November 23, 1986 – via ProQuest)

+ “Mariposa Equestrian Bridge Horse Traffic, May 2023 – 167 Horses In 3 Hours” (VIDEO – Los Angeles Equestrian Coalition YouTube channel, June 4, 2023)

+ Mejía, Paula: “The last cowboys of Los Angeles” (SF Gate, August 5, 2024)

+ Nguyen, Andy: “Bicyclist’s attempt to overturn Burbank ordinance fizzles out in court” (Los Angeles Times, May 8, 2018)

+ Quinton, Gavin: “Rancho Looks Ahead to Happier Trails” (Burbank Leader, February 27, 2023)

+ Quinton, Gavin: “Rancho Wins Equestrian Protections in State Housing Law” (Burbank Leader, December 18, 2023)

+ “Rancho Equestrian Neighborhood, Burbank, California, USA Driving Tour” (VIDEO – Living in Burbank YouTube channel, September 5, 2021)

+ “Riders Celebrate Approval of New Equestrian Bridge” (Los Angeles Times, September 6, 1938 – via ProQuest)

+ “Riders of Three Cities Dedicate New River Span” (Los Angeles Times, March 19, 1939 – via ProQuest)

+ Snow, Jenna & Kathryn McGee: Mariposa Street Bridge’s NRHP nomination form (PDF)

+ Thompson, Edward: “HOSS AUCTION” (Los Angeles Times, June 2, 1940 – via ProQuest)