Sometimes, the present reflects the past and future, too. Here’s a sampling of events, a planned project, and a video game (really!) that touch on what our city’s been and what it aims to be.
The Video Game
When Charlotte software engineer Mike Ramirez joked with some friends that he was going to make a video game about notorious Exit 3A on Interstate 277, they were so enthusiastic that he got to work. “When I’m driving through Exit 3A and merging across all that traffic,” Ramirez says, “I sit up in my seat, and I’m like, ‘Alright, I need to make sure I’m hitting all the points to successfully get through the exit.’ It feels kind of like a game already.”
He’s an engineer for a health care company by day, and he’s created about a dozen video games for fun since he taught himself to code a decade ago. He started work on “Exit 3A: The Game” in February 2024 and has made it his New Year’s resolution to complete it sometime this year. Like a Charlotte-centric game of Frogger, the objective is to navigate a vehicle off I-277 and across three lanes of traffic without spilling your cargo or crashing.
Ramirez plans to release it on the PC gaming platform Steam. He’s also working with Zach Pulliam, owner of Super Abari Game Bar, to make it an arcade game. “I have so many ideas now,” Ramirez says. You can follow his progress on Instagram.
Captain James Jack in Elizabeth Park.
The Semiquincentennial
That means “250th anniversary,” which in this case applies to the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, or “MecDec.” Members of The May 20th Society, a group of local MecDec enthusiasts, have planned events from May 10-20.
“This 250th anniversary is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reflect on the courage and vision of the Mecklenburg patriots,” says May 20th Society co-founder Scott Syfert. “Charlotte’s rich revolutionary history is an integral part of the American story, and we invite the community to take part in these meaningful, educational, and fun events leading up to the commemoration.”
Newcomers, and even some longtime Charlotteans, may not grasp the importance of the MecDec. Is it a serious historic artifact, a genuine precursor to the actual Declaration of Independence, or just a local curiosity? Well, it’s both—the second and third presidents of the United States, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, both made note of it, although Jefferson was considerably more skeptical about its significance.
On May 19, 1775, a man on horseback rode up to the old log courthouse at the intersection of two old trading routes, now known as Trade and Tryon streets. The man announced that, exactly a month before, colonial militia had defeated British soldiers at Lexington and Concord, and the American Revolution was underway. The feisty militia in the nascent city of Charlotte responded the next day with a proclamation, read from the courthouse steps, that cast off allegiance to the British crown—more than a year before that other Declaration.
Here are the planned events to commemorate the occasion:
Saturday, May 10:
Trail of History Festival
10 a.m.-4 p.m., Captain Jack statue at Fourth Street and Kings Drive. Free celebration with local history, art, music, and food.
MecDec Express: A Bus Tour Through Charlotte’s Revolution
3 p.m., Lost Worlds Brewing Charlotte. Davidson resident David Fleming, author of the 2023 book, Who’s Your Founding Father? One Man’s Epic Quest to Uncover the First, True Declaration of Independence, guides a charter bus tour of MecDec-related sites.
Tickets are $35, $55 with a signed paperback copy.
Sunday, May 18:
Captain James Jack Historical Bike Ride
3-6 p.m., begins and ends at Olde Mecklenburg Brewery. The group bike ride visits historic sites in honor of James Jack, who rode his horse to Philadelphia in the summer of 1775 to deliver the MecDec to the Continental Congress. Free.
Thursday, May 22:
Charlotte Museum of History Exhibit Opening
11 a.m.-5 p.m. The exhibit, on display through 2025, begins with the MecDec and explores the concept of freedom through history to the present day. Museum admission ($15 for adults, free for ages 18 and younger) required.
Commemoration Ceremony
12 p.m., Independence Square, Trade and Tryon streets. The free capstone event, hosted by Charlotte Center City Partners, includes a reading of the declaration, keynote speakers, a wreath-laying ceremony, military salutes, and performances by local musicians and choirs. Special guests include descendants of original signers and civic leaders.
Rail Trail Bridge rendering looking south, Courtesy, Charlotte Rail Trail
The Bridge
On the other side of the I-277 loop from Exit 3A, between South Boulevard and College Street, is the site of a planned bridge that’s more than just a piece of infrastructure. Local officials hope the bridge can join two areas that the highway has separated for decades: uptown and South End.
In January, City Council members approved a $16.3 million contract for the construction of the Rail Trail Pedestrian Bridge, expected to be finished in spring 2028. It’s a long-discussed project that will allow foot and bicycle traffic to cross 277 and freely move between Charlotte’s business district and its booming nightlife and residential hub, enhancing both.
That’s the hope, anyway. “It’s going to become a commuting artery into our major employment center,” says Michael Smith, president and CEO of Charlotte Center City Partners, the organization that focuses on economic and neighborhood development in uptown and its neighboring areas. “It’s just important on so many levels, and it’ll be interesting to see the way it impacts the vibrancy of both districts and so many small and large businesses.”
The idea emerged years ago. In 2019, Center City Partners announced that it had secured enough money from public and private sources to build the bridge. The Rail Trail, which opened in 2007, is a 3.5-mile pedestrian walkway that hugs the light rail line through South End—but ends just before I-277. If you want to walk or ride your bike across the interstate, you have to share an overpass with cars.
The 280-foot-long, 16-foot-wide bridge may also represent the first of a series of projects that mitigate the isolating effects of 277—an urban interstate loop that reflects the thinking of planners in the 1960s and ’70s who thought cities’ future belonged exclusively to the automobile. Only in recent years have local officials throughout the country recognized the benefits of other kinds of transportation in cities.
“More connectivity is better,” Smith says. “It connects people with opportunities and creates safer, more pedestrian-oriented neighborhoods. There are other places throughout uptown that would benefit from connections like this.”
COVID, of course, delayed the project, in addition to inflation that bumped the estimated project cost from $11 million in 2019 to its current $16.3 million. “Public projects are difficult, particularly when you go across an active expressway that’s owned by another form of government,” he says. “This is an important project, and that’s why everybody has stuck to it, and it’s also gone through an incredible inflationary period that makes it hard to keep projects capitalized. I couldn’t be more grateful to the city of Charlotte for the way they saw the importance of this connection and stuck with it.”
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