Philadelphia's "Park In The Sky"

New York City's High Line serves as a model for greenway development, transforming an old elevated freight railroad viaduct along the west side of Manhattan into a linear park/trail that has improved property values and spurred redevelopment in the surrounding area. Soon, the City of Philadelphia and Montgomery County could be connected by a similar greenway that will link Manyunk with the Cynwyd Trail in Lower Merion Township.

On Thursday, October 20th, elected officials from Philadelphia and Montgomery County held a groundbreaking ceremony atop the Manayunk Bridge celebrating the launch of construction of this vital regional trail connection. The Manayunk Bridge, built in 1918, is an "S"-shaped structure that sweeps across both the Schuylkill River and I-76/Schuylkill Expressway. SEPTA acquired the bridge in 1976, though it discontinued passenger rail service across it in 1986. Under the $1.5 million project, a walking and bicycling path will be built across the bridge connecting the recenlty completed Cynwyd Trail with the former SEPTA Ivy Ridge Station. Future phases of the project hopefully will extend this city-county connector to the Schuylkill River Trail.

Designs for this "park in the sky" show a trail winding across the bridge among low shrubs and bright flowering plants. Tall, transparent fence-like barriers will keep pedestrians from going too near the edge.

"This is a fantastic opportunity to personally, economically, and physically unite the city with the suburbs," said Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, who further called the trail connection "the finest example of what civil service is and what it can do".

The project was a collaborative effort between Lower Merion Township, SEPTA, the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission, the William Penn Foundation, the Manayunk Development Corporation, and PennDOT. Of the $1.5 million required for the project, $1.3 million in federal money for construction came from PennDOT's Pennsylvania Community Transportation Initiative. The rest was supplied by DVRPC and the William Penn Foundation. The project is to be completed in 18 months.

Posted in: biking,local,Ryan Jeroski