The TCD Mega-Gallery!

It was a perfect Sunday morning for a bike ride — the temperature was in the low 60s with little wind or humidity.  It was also an amazing day to ride that bike over a 2 mile bridge spanning the Milwaukee River as it meets Lake Michigan.  So was the opportunity for thousands of riders during the United Performing Arts Fund’s annual Ride for the Arts this past June 5.

This time around, three of the routes (25, 50, and 75-mile) started near the Mid-Gate of the Summerfest grounds and looped up the on-ramp over the beleaguered yet iconic steel and concrete span that links downtown to the Port of Milwaukee and Mitchell Airport.  With overall attendance topping 8,000 cyclists, the tally has yet to be announced but is likely to reach at least $350,000, which will benefit the active arts in the city.

We got special access that day to photograph participants atop the middle tied arch section; check out what we saw below in a slideshow or in the flickr.com set here.

Our beloved Publisher Jon Anne Willow takes Milwaukee's Finest for a ride. Photos by Dylan Huebner and Brian Jacobson.

Once the ride completed and everyone congregated on the Summerfest grounds to celebrate, we set up a ThirdCoast Digest booth.  When families and cycling enthusiasts weren’t busy trying out our balloon dartboard or learning about our website, they were posing for us on our friendly partner CreamCity Rickshaw. Owner Andrew Otis lent us a TCD model for the morning so we could conduct another famous photobooth session.

You can see our results below, or visit and tag yourself or friends in a special flickr.com set here.