LocationWard Parkway at Central St., Kansas City, Mo |
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In 2000, a newly built foot bridge located over Brush Creek on the Country Club Plaza at Central Street was named in honor of a international program which has local participation. Called the “Kansas City Sister Cities International Bridge”, the bridge brings recognition to a group that promotes international understanding by creating special connections between cities, states and counties all over the world. More than 2,000 cities, states and counties participate through groups in their own cities. The main headquarters is in Washington, D.C. The program began after 1956 following then President Dwight Eisenhower’s promotion of peace and understanding between citizens of all countries by creating an organization to create bonds between them calling it “citizen diplomacy”.
Kansas City has 13 Sister Cities. They are Seville, Spain; Kurashiki, Japan; Morelia, Mexico; Freetown, Sierra Leone; Tainan, Taiwan; Xi’an, China; Guadalajara, Mexico; Hannover, Germany; Port Harcourt, Nigeria; Arusha, Tanzania; San Nicolas de los Garza, Mexico; Ramla, Israel; and Metz, France.
The bridge, dedicated in 2000, replaced a foot bridge that had severe damage during the Plaza Flood of 1977 and had been torn down.
Another organization with similar goals is based here in Kansas City. The People-to-People International organization was founded in Kansas City in 1961. After leaving office, President Eisenhower joined with Joyce Hall, founder of Hallmark Cards, Walt Disney, Bob Hope and others to found People-to-People. It offers educational programs for students and adults to promote peace through better understanding between people all over the world.
**Locks placed on the Sister Cities Bridge will be removed.
Please place locks on the Old Red Bridge in Minor Park.**
Nearly 200 hundred years after the area’s first fur trading post was settled on the bluffs of the Missouri River, Kansas City is preparing to honor the French pioneer Francois Chouteau who established it, and the Native Americans with whom he traded. Francois Chouteau...
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