It's been five years since the first cars rushed across the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, but if you're hoping for a verdict on its success or failure, the only possible response is that the jury is still out.

Judged solely as a work of design, it's a split decision.

Let's grant above all that it is beautiful, especially if you're standing under it or adjacent to it on the converted Ron Kirk (formerly Continental Avenue) pedestrian bridge. Dallas wanted an icon, and the great white hoop is one, a skyline anchor to balance the lollipop Reunion Tower and serve as a gateway to West Dallas.

The Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge spans the Trinity River between downtown and West Dallas, Wednesday evening, March 8, 2017. (Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News)

As is often the case with the work of Santiago Calatrava, the bridge's architect, aesthetics come at a steep cost, more than $180 million. While the mantra of the engineer is to do the most with the least, with Calatrava it often seems like the objective is to do the most with the most. For a century, viaducts have crossed the Trinity levees without need of enormous and enormously expensive suspension infrastructure.

The bridge is about swagger and excess, which makes it just right for Dallas, so much so that the city is building another one; you've probably noticed the twin white arches of the Margaret McDermott Bridge, which is set to open later this year as the signature element of the remade Dallas Horseshoe.

For all the Hunt Hill Bridge's aesthetic qualities, it is representative of that endemic Dallas tendency to privilege object over context. Dallas built a bridge, but it didn't bother to include pedestrian or bike lanes to make it accessible to anyone who might not want to cross it by automobile. Deputizing the Kirk Bridge for these purposes was a half-measure; a means of cost-cutting that made clear that the city's priorities remained with the car. It is telling that virtually no accommodation has been made on the downtown side of the Kirk for those who might cross to, or access it from, that side.

It also tells us something about the city's priorities that the beauty stops right at the foot of the Hunt Hill Bridge. Singleton Boulevard, which connects to it on the West Dallas side, could have been transformed into a handsome avenue with a landscaped median at relatively little cost. Five years later, it's still an unattractive raceway, even as development springs around it.

Here again we must see the legacy of the bridge as yet to be determined. It has spurred growth in West Dallas; the Trinity Groves restaurant complex is a popular success. Apartments are beginning to line Singleton. Most of them, however, are unattractive architecturally. So questions remain: How will the area develop, how can it be managed, and how will the communities of La Bajada and Los Altos be protected from encroaching gentrification? These are good problems to have, but the city will have to face them proactively, or it will end up with a no-man's land, and all the spending on the bridge will have been for naught.

Five years in, the bridge stands above all as a metaphor, a giant arched portal to another Dallas, one that the city has yet to realize. And the greatest unresolved question of all is not so much what will happen across the bridge, but what will happen under it with the unfulfilled landscape that lies between the Trinity levees. If you climb down into that space, you will find there is no more attractive place in Dallas than the anchorages to Calatrava's great hoop. But only if you're looking up.

— Mark Lamster

1 / 17Spanning the Trinity River between downtown and West Dallas, the 400 ft. high Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge is seen through the fog with the rising sun behind Reunion Tower, January 11, 2012. (Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News) 2 / 17The contrail of a jet appears pink in the light of the setting sun, juxtaposed against the pattern of high tension cables of the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, January 20, 2012. World-renowned architect Santiago Calatrava designed the bridge spanning the Trinity River between downtown and West Dallas. (Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News) 3 / 17Doug Dickson (left) and Don Cartwright of TranSystems are suspended from ropes as they prepare to inspect the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge June 12, 2013 in Dallas. The Cleveland, Ohio-based team began work on Monday to inspect the 14-month-old bridge for signs of stress as part of regular maintenance. (G.J. McCarthy/The Dallas Morning News) 4 / 17Lights highlight the underside of the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge roadway decking on January 17, 2012, as seen inside from inside the levees west of the Trinity River channel. World-renowned architect Santiago Calatrava designed the bridge. (Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News) 5 / 17Susette Cody, of Dallas, photographs the bridge, using her iPhone during the second day of the big celebration for the inauguration of the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, in Dallas, on March 3, 2012. ( Kye R. Lee / The Dallas Morning News ) 6 / 17The Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge reflected in the Trinity River, which was close to 40 feet, the level defined as major flood stage, on May 24, 2015. The last time the Trinity River rose to 40 feet was June 28, 2007, when it crested at 40.25 feet. (Smiley N. Pool/The Dallas Morning News) 7 / 17Spanning the Trinity River between downtown and West Dallas, the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge is seen at dusk with rush hour traffic on the North Dallas Tollway, January 19, 2012. World-renowned architect Santiago Calatrava designed the bridge. (Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News) 8 / 17A play structure built to reflect the downtown Dallas skyline and the Margaret Hunt Hill bridge are part of the Moody Family Children's Museum inisde the Perot Museum of Nature and Science, November 1, 2012. (Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News) 9 / 17The high tension cables of the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge are a blur in this image as a Dallas police officer patrols the bridge before opening-night festivities in Dallas, March 2, 2012. (Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News) 10 / 17Spanning the Trinity River between downtown and West Dallas, the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge is seen through the fog with the rising sun, January 11, 2012. World-renowned architect Santiago Calatrava is designed the bridge. (Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News) 11 / 17Lucy Wrubel of Dallas at the opening night festivities of the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge March 2, 2012. (Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News) 12 / 17The high tension cables lead to the top of the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge as it is seen at night, January 19, 2012. World-renowned architect Santiago Calatrava designed the bridge. (Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News) (Tom Fox / Staff Photographer) 13 / 17The Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge in Dallas is juxtaposed with twinkling lights on nearby densly lit trees, March 2, 2012, before opening-night festivities which included a concert by Lyle Lovett. (Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News) 14 / 17The Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge peers over a concrete plant near the Cypress at Trinity Groves luxury apartments (left) in the Trinity Groves area near downtown Dallas, March 22, 2017. (Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News) 15 / 17The cables and the arch of the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge make a unique geometric pattern visible only from directly below, January 17, 2012. World-renowned architect Santiago Calatrava designed the bridge spanning the Trinity River between downtown and West Dallas. (Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News) 16 / 17Construction workers maneuver the first white steel tubing section of the Margaret Hunt Hill bridge, which will connect Woodall Rodgers Freeway to Singleton Boulevard over the Trinity, into place, May 28, 2010. The first of several sections will compose the massive 400-foot central transverse arch over the river. This 240-ton, 154 ft. piece was anchored on the south concrete abutment. (Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News) 17 / 17The Texas flag flies before the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge in Dallas, March 2, 2012, before opening-night festivities which included a concert by Lyle Lovett. (Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News)

Bridge facts

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Displacement and worry

Think of Raul Reyes Jr. as an evangelist for homeownership. It creates wealth. Generations of it.

Take his neighborhood, Los Altos, which is one of the closest to the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge.

Lots of people here own their homes, even though they often come from modest means.

Reyes' big fear is that — with the rise of the bridge — many others will decide to make his neighborhood their home, too, and that those who have been here will be priced out.

Gentrification is rolling fast from the bridge down Singleton Boulevard, bringing with it restaurants, art galleries and far more expensive housing. Reyes really took notice when new apartments and luxury town homes leapt across Sylvan Avenue heading west.

Median household incomes have jumped, too, to $40,000 from $29,000. That's a 38 percent increase in Reyes' census tract in just five years, using estimates from 2010 and 2015.

"Our neighborhood is a sleeping giant," said Reyes, a 43-year-old father of three. "You actually have people from the community that are second-generation or third-generation, and they have a college education but they are still living in grandma's house or mom's house."

But a flood of newcomers has streamed across the Hunt Hill Bridge into new apartments in West Dallas. More will come soon to town homes that are still being built. Construction crews are constantly at work in the area.

Reyes understands that displacement can follow gentrification. Look at neighborhoods around the nation from the Mission in San Francisco to Red Hook in New York. But in Dallas, what Latinos remember most is what happened to Little Mexico at the northwest corner of downtown.

Homeownership is one of the biggest stabilizing forces in Reyes' area, anchored by the neighborhoods of La Bajada and Los Altos. Almost two-thirds of the houses in his neighborhood are owner-occupied. That's striking when compared with Dallas' overall homeownership rate of 42 percent.

Reyes' immigrant parents, Raul Sr. and Juanita, purchased four homes in Los Altos, and their children gradually started making payments and paying for improvements.

Now, Reyes, who works as a youth advocate for a nonprofit group, has a fresh challenge. He wants to do some extensive home repairs. He hopes someday his house will pass to his own children, just as it passed to him.

– Dianne Solis

West Dallas homeowner Raul Reyes Sr (left) and his son Raul Reyes Jr pose for a photo in front of their family home off Sylvan Ave in Dallas, Wednesday, March 22, 2017. Reyes Jr. was born and raised across the street from his fathers current home (pictured). Reyes Sr has lived in the neighborhood since 1969. (Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News)

A busy bridge

Critics called it "the bridge to nowhere." But transportation officials say drivers are flowing in and out of West Dallas as predicted.

The Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge records an average of 42,572 vehicle trips a day, according to the Texas Department of Transportation.

TxDOT's traffic estimate five years ago of 42,000 vehicle trips per day was on the mark.

The latest count was determined using unpublished data, gathered in 2015, from the west entrance of the bridge. It's different from the public tally of bridge traffic that appears on the department's website, which puts the average at 29,800 daily vehicle trips.

The website figure reflects information from a counter at the eastern end of the bridge, which doesn't capture ramp traffic streaming onto the bridge from southbound Interstate 35E and Riverfront Boulevard, said TxDOT spokesman Tony Hartzel.

Because the eastern count is missing some of the traffic flow, TxDOT plans to add a counter at another location on the eastern side of the bridge that does record the ramp traffic, Hartzel said. The counter is expected to be in place for 2017 traffic calculations.

TxDOT estimates that traffic on the bridge will jump to about 59,000 vehicle trips per day by 2035 — a projection that could go up once the data from the new counter station is available.

Meanwhile, Dallas city officials said there are no plans for now to expand Singleton Boulevard, which channels traffic from the bridge into West Dallas.

— Julieta Chiquillo

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A change in crime

Police say West Dallas' main crime problem is the same today as it was before the bridge opened: a series of recurring quality-of-life issues.

They point to junk cars clogging neighborhood streets and old mattresses and cement slabs discarded on empty lots.

Willie Parham and Arnulfo Pargas, senior corporals for the Dallas Police Department who patrol West Dallas, blamed outsiders.

"What they do is they pick up trash somewhere; they pay them to go dump it," Pargas said.

West Dallas residents in the three police beats closest to the bridge have experienced little change in violent crime since the structure opened in 2012, according to Police Department statistics. Those statistics count murders, rapes, aggravated assaults and robberies.

The police beat with the largest percentage rate increase in violent crime went from 15 recorded offenses in 2011 to 20 last year.

But property crime plunged in two of the three police beats, especially residential burglaries, statistics show.

Deputy Chief Albert Martinez said a lot of the trouble in West Dallas happens overnight, such as drug dealing on the pedestrian bridge across the Trinity River and illegal racing next to the levees.

Police have increased their presence near the bridge, but it's not their focus, Martinez said.

"It's not fair to the neighborhood if we keep ourselves stuck to Trinity Groves," he said.

Parham and Pargas balance patrol duties with community outreach. During spring break, they helped organize a barbecue for neighborhood kids at Fish Trap Lake Park.

The officers said they like what the bridge has done. Parham took a photo in front of it and used it on the baseball cards that he hands out to children.

"If you look at West Dallas, it's beautiful," Parham said.

— Julieta Chiquillo

1 / 4A man sleeps on a piece of cardboard along Singleton Blvd across the street from Trinity Groves near the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge in West Dallas, Wednesday, March 22, 2017. (Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News) 2 / 4Welded bars over business doors on Singleton Ave, like this broken window from a former automotive shop, are commonplace in West Dallas near the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, Thursday, March 23, 2017. (Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News) 3 / 4Sr. Corporal Arnulfo Pargas (left) greets Greater Mount Hebron Missionary Baptist Church Pastor Rayford Butler as Sr. Corporal Willie Parham looks on as they patrol the West Dallas area near the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge in Dallas on Tuesday, March 21, 2017. (Vernon Bryant/The Dallas Morning News) 4 / 4Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge is seen in the distance as Sr. Corporal Willie Parham (left) and Sr. Corporal Arnulfo Pargas (right) patrol the West Dallas area in Dallas on Tuesday, March 21, 2017. (Vernon Bryant/The Dallas Morning News)

A burst of wealth

For Jim Reynolds, senior vice president of Trinity Groves LLC, there's no doubt about it. If not for the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, the company's collection of open restaurants and its apartments, still taking shape at the foot of the bridge, would not be there.

"We wouldn't be willing to put out millions of dollars of our own money. The risk would be too big," he said.

Reynolds is part of West Dallas Investments LP, a team that includes investors Butch McGregor and Stuart Fitts along with noted restaurateur Phil Romano.

The crew began amassing West Dallas land in 2005, before the bridge was approved.

"In 2011, we were doing acquisitions at $15 to $25 a square foot," he said. Now, "prices are getting ridiculous. If you can buy a piece of property for under $45 to $60 a square foot in the vicinity of Trinity Groves, I'd like to know about it."

Karl Stundins, the city of Dallas' area redevelopment manager, has calculated a nearly 120 percent increase in the appraised value of property nearest the foot of the bridge, an area that's part of a tax incentive district that helped fund the construction of Victory Park and American Airlines Center.

The appraised value soared from $11.6 million in 2012 to $25.2 million in 2016, Stundins said. More than half of that gain was the direct result of the construction of the Trinity Groves Restaurant Incubator and the construction of the Columbus Realty mixed-use project across the street, which includes apartments and more restaurants. That development is a joint venture that includes the West Dallas development team.

Stundins called the bridge an important factor leading to the West Dallas development. But he notes that the bridge has not had the Midas touch on the east side of the span, the section closest to downtown and Victory Park.

"We've talked to several groups about that site," he said, "but none of them were able to finalize a deal and get it funded."

It appears clear, however, that the bridge's impact to the west will only grow.

— Karen Robinson-Jacobs