If a tourist visits Los Angeles, you better bet they're going to get their photo next to the Hollywood sign--that's how it works. Well now a piece of concrete known as the nude bridge in Palm Springs may turn out to be just as popular.
Tourists come to Palm Springs for fresh air, beautiful mountains and majestic palms. They come to see landmarks like palm canyon drive and the old plaza theatre. But there's another fairly new attraction that's causing folks to do a double take!
It’s quickly becoming another icon of, Palm Springs, something recognized already around the world.
It’s affectionately referred to as the nude bridge. It connects Desert Shadows Nudist Resort to luxury condos across Indian Canyon Drive. The idea is, there’s no need to put on clothes to make the stroll to the other side.
“The amount of media attention we have gotten in particular the bridge has gotten has dumbfounded us,” says Stephen Payne of Desert Shadows Resort.
Resort CEO Steve Payne hosts clients from around the world and the world is learning fast about this fairly bare piece of concrete and canvass. A recent conversation Steve had with a guest went something like this:
“I said, ‘how did you hear of Desert Shadows?’ He said, “Oh, Desert Shadows, everyone knows about the bridge,’ and he was from Brazil.”
Since it's unveiling a few months ago, stories on the bridge have appeared in newspapers nationwide.
“I think I read about this in Seattle,” says tourist Dick Carl.
Attention grabbing headlines have been read in papers from Seattle to San Diego to the BBC. Film crews from MTV were even shooting a special on the bridge when we were there.
Downtown merchant Tim Metz says it seems everyone wants a peek at it.
“People ask about it. They say ‘where's this famous bridge I've been hearing about?’”
Steve says they never saw this as a public relations idea, but because of all the attention, there's talk now of putting up the city's name in lights across the bridge, dressing it up if you will, much like the Hollywood sign in Los Angeles.
The skinny on that idea? Hotel management loves it.
They say naturally, they expected to turn a few heads, but never thought so many eyes would focus on what's been dubbed their bridge of thighs.
As the old saying goes, sometimes less is more and if less is drawing in more tourists, then the nude bridge is quickly becoming another landmark.
Steve Payne is planning a meeting soon with city officials to work on the plan.
