Key points:
• A $10 million pedestrian bridge is being installed at the Capitol next month.
• Critics say the bridge will prevent elected officials from interacting with constituents.
A controversial $10 million pedestrian bridge connecting the Georgia State Capitol building to a new legislative building over Martin Luther King Jr. Drive is being installed in early June.
The steps of the Capitol are a known gathering spot for press conferences and protests. Critics worry that the skybridge will encourage legislators to lose touch with constituents as they move above the street from their vehicles to meetings.
The enclosed skybridge is the most recent addition to the Gold Dome’s campus since a statue of Martin Luther King Jr. was installed in 2017.
Atlanta Preservation Center Executive Director David Y. Mitchell said the skybridge diminishes the integrity of the Capitol. The skybridge does not complement the “thoughtful planning and decades-long processes of ensuring that the experience and state of Georgia is represented on that campus,” he said.
“It’s the precedent. That building is iconic. When you think of Georgia’s role in the Reconstruction period, when you think of the national conversation of our sense of post-Civil War America – and particularly as the state of Georgia – this capital takes on cultural responsibility. It just doesn’t seem to have the same vision that was utilized for its creation in the 1880s,” Mitchell said.
Atlanta City Council member Jason Dozier opposed funding the skybridge in 2025. He said the skybridge flies in the face of the city’s attempt to bring people back to Downtown and its streets.
“I’m a big believer that these hamster tubes don’t do anything to get people on the street or to patronize businesses,” Dozier said in June 2025. “They don’t bring vibrancy.”
More than a dozen skybridges connect buildings in downtown Atlanta – many influenced by Atlanta architect John Portman. They’re located at the Fulton County Courthouse, AmericasMart and the Peachtree Center district.
The skybridge will be in place the first week of June, according to Georgia Building Authority Chief of Staff Gerald Pilgrim. The goal is to wrap the bridge with a welcome message for World Cup visitors. It will be in use by October.
“This building is designed for more access to legislators,” Pilgrim said.“Committee rooms are going to function easier so that the public don’t have to leave one building to go to the other. It’s all seamless.”
For decades, the Capitol has been under a $400 million renovation and expansion, including the restoration of the two-story state library. Pilgrim told Rough Draft the project is “the most historical preservation in the capital that has ever been done.”
Early conversations about connecting the legislative building to the Gold Dome included a debate about a bridge versus a tunnel. The bridge is being designed by architect firm Stantec, who was responsible for the design of Arthur M. Blank Hospital Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta in Brookhaven.
“Why would our Capitol building not be given the same level of dignity and respect as the [elected] individuals who we praise? They could never have achieved their ‘greatness’ had they not had a platform to do it,” said Mitchell.
