In 1960, the four-lane Camperdown Bridge was erected over the Reedy River Falls, obscuring its view for the next 40 years. The neighborhood surrounding the river declined, and many residents lost even the memory of the waterfall. Then, in 1974, the Carolina Foothills Garden Club, under the leadership of Harriet Wyche, saw the potential for the landscape around the bridge and adopted the area as a major beautification project. Over the next several decades the Club slowly made small but important improvements to the nearly forgotten and disused area. Over time, the Club and the City of Greenville, under Mayor Knox White, working with a team of local and international designers including Andrea Mains, Miguel Rosales, Schlaich Bergermann and Partners, Tom Keith and Robert Miller, developed a broad vision for a beautiful park surrounding the falls, a vision that could only be fully realized with removal of the highway bridge.