DALLAS — The new pedestrian bridge over U.S. 75 in North Dallas opened on Monday. And so it took until Thursday before a picture started making the rounds on social media: An SUV ended up on the bridge.

How did that happen?

Well, we almost saw for ourselves Friday morning.

Our very own Chris Sadeghi was doing his live shot at the bridge, which is located off Northaven Road between Royal and Forest lanes on U.S. 75. Chris was planning to explain how the bridge entry is set up, and then show the picture, sent to us by Adam Reed, of an SUV on the pedestrian ramp to the bridge this week.

Then just as Chris was going live on Daybreak, a car pulled up and nearly turned onto the bridge entryway, instead of the street. 

The driver figured it out and turned right on Northaven, instead of going up the ramp and onto the pedestrian bridge. But it was easy to see why there might have been some confusion.

Northaven, on the west side of U.S. 75, runs parallel to the entry to the pedestrian bridge. The bridge has a divided lane, but it’s about the size of the single lane of traffic – so, big enough for one vehicle.

As drivers head east along Northaven, or turn east out of the nearby parking lot, they are met with two options: Stay on Northaven, which leads to the U.S. 75 frontage road; or, if they’re not paying attention to signage, get on the entry to the pedestrian bridge, which is separated from Northaven by a middle divider.

Granted, there’s a “No Motor Vehicles” sign on the side of the bridge entryway. But as we saw Friday morning, not all drivers are initially paying attention to it.

Texas Department of Transportation officials said they were aware of the SUV ending up on the bridge, but more information wasn’t available.

The bridge was a $9.3 million project aimed at connecting Dallas’ trail systems, specifically the Northaven Trail, which can now connect to the Cottonwood Creek and White Rock Creek trails on the east side of U.S. 75. The bridge’s 201-foot, 800,000 pound arch was installed over the highway in September, but the bridge wasn’t open to pedestrians and cyclists until this week.