A green bridge over a not so green bridge

I was in Washington, DC last week.  While exploring walking paths close to the hotel, I came across this ...

Ah, you say, that is lovely little path, Nancy, but so what?  Who cares?  Well, this little stretch of what appears to be parkland is actually a bridge, and it crosses another bridge, the rather large Woodrow Wilson Bridge over the Potomac River, at the southern edge of the 495 beltway that circles Washington.

See?  Peeking through the foliage and trees on the pedestrian / cycle bridge, you see the bigger bridge that we are crossing over to reach the path that runs along the northern edge of it.

This is looking the other way from the pedestrian bridge - that is actually a large spaghetti pit of ramps and highways in the background, the photo doesn't do justice to the utter inhospitality of the surrounding asphalt:

Here's a map that shows where the pedestrian / cycle bridge is located, it's the grey line that crosses the highway on the island.  The path then follows the northern edge of the interstate to cross the bridge:

This is a view back at the pedestrian bridge from the walking / cycling path on the interstate bridge.  (Ed seems to have snapped the photo at a rare moment when there are no cars right beside us - this is a busy 10-12 lane highway over the bridge, so usually they are barrelling along beside you, but the concrete separation is good.)  I hadn't noticed the trees on the pedestrian bridge while driving under it, as it kind of blends in with the rolling distant landscape.

Thumbs up for great pedestrian and cycling pathways in this area that is otherwise so dominated by cars and big scary trucks.