Originally built in 1872 as the L and N Railroad bridge, the Newport Southbank Bridge was the first railroad bridge over the Ohio River in Cincinnati and is one of the oldest surviving railroad bridges in the country. The last train crossed it in 1987, and it remained open to automobile traffic until 2001, when it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Officially named the Newport Southbank Bridge, it came to be more commonly known as the Purple People Bridge because of its unusual color, which was chosen as the top preference by more than a dozen groups who viewed computer-generated images of the bridge in several colors. At 2,670 feet, the bridge is just over a half-mile long and is the longest pedestrian bridge in the country linking two states. Over time, trains, horse-drawn carriages, streetcars, automobiles, bicycles, and pedestrians used it to cross the river. Restored at a cost of approximately $4 million, it opened as a pedestrian-only walkway in 2003.