OK, a little perspective on the purple: Sure it's unconventional, but the L&N Bridge's previous color — rust — technically isn't one.

        And at least the new hue isn't battleship gray.

Darren Moses mixes an epoxy primer for the L&N Bridge. | ZOOM |

        That's the view of some of the painters, as well as some of the people gazing at the new paint on the bridge built in 1872.

        Work is expected to be done by December. The former railroad bridge will be used as a pedestrian walkway between Newport on the Levee and the new Reds ballpark. Its train tracks were shut down in 1987, and it was closed to cars in 2001.

        “Everybody who comes in talks about it, it's definitely different,” said Saleem Aghbar, a bartender/server at Claddagh. The Irish pub at Newport on the Levee has a back patio overlooking the bridge, where Mr. Aghbar was working Tuesday.

        “Some people are like, "Why did they paint it Barney colors?' They're really struggling with it,” he said with a slight laugh. For the record, it's light purple, with an epoxymastic primer and a urethane finish.

James Withrow applies an epoxy primer to the structural steel on the L&N Bridge. | ZOOM |

        “You know,” Mr. Aghbar said. “it's definitely a conversation piece.”

        That's part of the reason Newport officials picked it. They envisioned a color that's festive but not too visually intrusive.

        It worked on Steven Walrath, 43, of Florence. Standing at the Levee wall overlooking the Ohio River with his son, Jonathan, 11, and daughter, Melissa, 9, he contemplated the question for a moment.
        “I guess I'd characterize it as different,” he said. “I'm usually conservative, but I guess they were going for something different. And maybe, in some ways. . . .”

        He stopped in mid-sentence. “I like it.”

        So does Conomos Industrial Painting field supervisor Darren Moses, who said the color “was a little hard on the eyes at first.”

        The Bridgeville, Pa.-based company near Pittsburgh won the job with a low bid of $2.8 million. Ironically, it was another Pittsburgh firm incorporated by industrialist Andrew Carnegie, Keystone Co., that built the bridge, just five years after the Roebling Suspension Bridge opened a few hundred yards away.

        Today, 25 painters, in two shifts, are working seven days a week on the bridge — weather permitting. The bridge was closed to trains because of its low load limit, and then its auto traffic count dwindled after the nearby four-lane Taylor-Southgate Bridge replaced the old Central Bridge.

        The state of Kentucky is funding the $4 million painting and restoration, which will include security cameras, lights and railings.

        It is expected to use 6,000 to 7,000 gallons of paint when it is finished.

        “One person asked me, what's the next color going to be, they thought it was going to be a rainbow,” Mr. Moses said in his mobile office on the span. “It's an eye-catcher. That's for sure.”

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