Rock Island Bridge

The historic Rock Island Railroad Bridge is coming alive with music, dining, coffee shops & bars, trailhead services and more.  And it’s all 40 feet over the Kansas River!  America’s first entertainment district on a bridge opens Spring 2024.

IT STARTED WITH “CHICKEN ONA BRIDGE”

Mike Zeller first hit upon the concept of treating a bridge like land while on a boating trip up the Kansas River with family and friends. The group was admiring what they later learned was the Rock Island Railroad bridge, an evidently robust yet abandoned structure, when Mike quipped, “Someone ought to do something with that, put a restaurant out there and call it Chicken ona Bridge.”  It was a joke, but the idea was born. 

After trying for several years at no effect to persuade others to develop the structure, Mike and his wife Liz decided to take the entrepreneurial leap. They formed the startup Flying Truss, LLC and brought expertise onboard with the addition of Mike Laddin and John McGurk, both KC natives.  

Starting in 2018, the team secured a long-term lease on the bridge from Kansas City, Kansas, formed partnerships with the city and state governments for this new public/private concept, developed the business model and designs to serve it. They then secured the private investments, philanthropic dollars, and public investments needed to make America’s First Trailhead and Entertainment District Over a River a reality.