Zombies lurked once more Wednesday in Monroeville Mall, as in scenes from George Romero’s 1978 thriller “Dawn of the Dead.”

With blood-stained clothing and partially visible body parts, the ghouls crept through the crowd of horror movie fans and other mall-goers in search of … brains? No, their goal was to move pieces of the “Zombie Bridge” from its original home in the mall to a van for transport to the Heinz History Center in the Strip District.

The historic footbridge will be part of an exhibit opening in 2018 that will focus on movies filmed in Pittsburgh and movie companies that started here, such as Warner Bros.

Fans of Mr. Romero’s zombie films are confident that the famous bridge will draw movie buffs.

“You’re going to wind up having thousands more people coming to the Heinz Center just because of this one bridge,” said Lenny Lies, who played “Machete Zombie” in the 1978 film and attended the event in the mall Wednesday.

Also on hand was Tony Bubba, who worked on the film’s audio and played the “Motorcycle Raider” who burst into the mall at the end of the movie and lost an arm to a zombie.

The mall remains a mecca for “Dawn of the Dead” fans because it has changed so little since the movie was made. The boiler room, for example, looks exactly the same as it does in the movie. Some fans were worried about the footbridge after they learned that mall management planned to make changes to that space.

Ned Schano, director of communications at the history center, said Heinz officials worked with mall management to preserve the bridge.

“It’s been a frightfully fun project to work on, and we’re so happy that the ‘Dawn of the Dead’ footbridge is coming to the history center for its final resting place,” he said.

First Published: July 23, 2015, 4:00 a.m.