Calvin's Crossing Wins Name Contest
The new pedestrian walkway at Calvin College has an official name. At a service of dedication, held at 10 a.m. on May 8, the 380-foot span over the East Beltline was christened Calvin's Crossing.
To come up with a name, Calvin held a contest that drew about 150 entries, everything from the serious to the sardonic. There were suggestions as simple as Dwight and as silly as Dude, Where's My Overpass. Some suggested naming the structure for Calvin President Gaylen Byker, while others favored naming it after long-time Chaplain Dale Cooper.
In the end a five-person committee chose the descriptive, yet alliterative, moniker — Calvin's Crossing.
The name was submitted by five people: students Jill Baker (Strathroy, ON), Andrea Hagerup (East Grand Rapids), Micah Sytsma (Elmhurst, IL) and Steve Zaagman (Grand Rapids) and staff member Phil de Haan. Each of the students earned $100 for the winning suggestion.
Interestingly, the name conforms to the California Department of Transportation naming convention for structures such as bridges, overpasses, underpasses, tunnels and crossings. According to C-DOT, a pedestrian walkway over a highway, like Calvin's, is technically known as a pedestrian overcrossing. M-DOT does not have such strict naming conventions and often refers to a structure such as Calvin's simply as a pedestrian bridge.