Los Angeles Bridges Are Being Stripped of Metal and Sold for Scraps

In downtown Los Angeles, the iconic Sixth Street Bridge, a project that cost federal and local taxpayers $588 million to erect, is completely dark at night. Since its opening to great fanfare in July 2022, thieves have gradually stripped the lights, poles and seven miles of wiring that illuminate the bridge’s arches — stealing the copper for scrap metal, a petty crime that may have earned the hoodlums pennies on the dollar.

In Windsor Village, a bronze bust of former Los Angeles City Council member Harold A. Henry recently vanished from its pedestal, one of the many metal statues stolen from city parks in 2024; while in Compton, robbers ransacked a cemetery to steal grave markers. Just this week, the Gothic lamps on the 7th Street Bridge have been stolen. The stripped bridge “is now dark and ugly,” writes Esoteric.

All are part of a rash of metal crimes — a staggering 6,842 cases were reported across Los Angeles in 2023 — costing Angelenos more than $17 million in repair bills — and climbing.

“Thieves are literally picking our city for parts and selling them for scraps,” City Council member Kevin de León told reporters at a press conference earlier this year. The city, he said, is fighting back by creating the Copper Wire Task Force, a collaboration with the LAPD and the Bureau of Street Lighting, with a mission to stop scrap metal thieves.

It’s not just about looting L.A.’s history and skyline, says City Council member Traci Park of the Westside’s District 11. The thefts “are putting lives at risk from disabled traffic signals.”

But there’s no denying that the absence of the celebrated ribbon of light that framed the Sixth Street Bridge brings with it an added measure of public shame.