If you’ve ever been to Columbia, you may have walked across it — and you’ve almost certainly driven under it.

The concrete walking bridge spans 172 feet across six lanes of Little Patuxent Parkway. It dates back to Columbia’s early days and evokes the Brutalist architecture of the late 1960s and early ’70s.

But if you want to catch a glimpse of the 54-year-old landmark near The Mall in Columbia or snap a photo from it, you’d better swing by soon.

Next month, crews will began an overnight “hand-demolition” of the structure. They will start at 8 p.m. on Aug. 11 and finish up 12 hours later (weather permitting).

Why knock down a bridge that connects the mall to a parking lot near Lake Kittamaqundi and the Whole Foods, in the heart of downtown?

Howard County officials say the bridge is nearing the end of its life expectancy and it’s cheaper to take it apart than to make the necessary repairs.

The bridge suffers from missing chunks of concrete and stains from the weather. What looks to be black tarp covers parts of the bridge’s underside, perhaps preventing those chunks from striking cars.

Some Columbia resident are happy to see it go.

“The pedestrian bridge in downtown Columbia is one of the more useless pieces of New Town nostalgia,” said Len Lazarick, a Columbia resident and founding editor of MarylandReporter.com. “Nobody uses it because it is inconvenient to get to and goes from nowhere to nowhere.”

The bridge’s Brutalist architecture is passé, though not uncommon in this region. Notably, the raw concrete of the Walters Art Museum’s Centre Street building still stands, while the Morris A. Mechanic Theatre in downtown Baltimore was demolished in 2015.

Elevated urban walkways also have fallen into disfavor.

Similar skywalks were a feature of downtown Baltimore’s revival in the 1960s and 1970s, but most fell into disuse or were dismantled. Only one still crosses Pratt Street, connecting Harborplace and the Renaissance Hotel, but it is closed.

“Unfortunately, the skywalk was a design feature that did not meet with much approval, pedestrians preferring to stay at street level,” wrote Marion E. Warren and Michael P. McCarthy in the 2002 book, “The Living City.”

The demolition of the pedestrian bridge over Little Patuxent Parkway is being overseen by Brookfield Properties, the mall’s owner.

Several years ago, the company conducted a structural assessment of the bridge, which found it more cost-efficient to dismantle than repair. (The company did not share the project’s costs).

“While the bridge was deemed structurally sound in 2022, the extent and complexity of required repairs, combined with the age, unclear reinforcement type, and safety risks, indicated that the demolition of the bridge replacement would be a more efficient long-term solution than an extensive and costly rehabilitation,” Howard County officials said in a news release.

Walkers shouldn’t fret though.

Once the bridge is gone, Brookfield Properties plans to build an alternate path from the parkway’s mall side to a traffic signal a couple hundred feet south of the bridge, county officials said in a news release. There, a new signaled pedestrian crosswalk will be built.

“Walkability is huge in downtown Columbia,” said Mary Williams, the mall’s senior general manager. “We’re excited about this alternative.”

The Downtown Columbia Partnership held some community walks and conducted a survey roughly three years ago to take the pulse of the “pedestrian experience.”

Many respondents expressed concern about the lack of sidewalks on the parkway’s mall side and accessible crossings, “given the fact that the existing pedestrian bridge does not present an accessible alternative,” the partnership wrote in a 2023 plan.

Williams said the new path, once approved by the county, will extend 745 feet and take approximately two and a half months to complete.

“If you’re a walker it’s [going to be] a great path,” she said.

Lazarick, author of “Columbia at 50: A Memoir of a City,” said there’s room for improvement for walkability in downtown Columbia, especially to get between the east and west sides.

“I think it’s a great place to live, but Columbia is especially hard to walk around safely in the business parks,” Lazarick said.

While he hasn’t used the parkway bridge in years, Lazarick remembers walking across it to get to the annual lakefront Fourth of July fireworks, and one particular time with his daughter.

Signs will be posted to notify residents of the coming project as well as road detours. The county said residents with questions can call 410-313-3440 or email publicworks@howardcountymd.gov