After a decade, the Wissahickon finally has its pedestrian bridge

The Friends of the Wissahickon nonprofit group this week unveiled a new footbridge inside Wissahickon Valley Park, a $3.5 million project nearly a decade in the making.

The bridge will allow park visitors to avoid walking alongside cars down Valley Green Road as they approach the Valley Green area to enter the park, which is part of the Fairmount Park system. Combining the restoration of eroded stream bank and the construction of a winding wooden bridge, the friends group said, the project is the park’s largest capital investment to date.

“It feels great,” said Ruffian Tittmann, the group’s executive director, who also spoke at a ribbon-cutting ceremony Tuesday that honored the contributions of project supporters and volunteers.

“We had a lot of … people that really love the park, not just doing this to to cement a legacy of some kind but really to just give back to a park that has meant so much to them in their lives,” she said.

The area’s original stream bank and wooden boardwalk collapsed in 2014 after a major storm. Since then, park visitors haven’t had a clear pedestrian-only path into the popular Valley Green area. Tittmann said the issue can be especially pronounced on peak visitation days, when up to 2,000 people come to the Wissahickon, which celebrated its 100th anniversary this fall.

After years of fundraising, the project finally broke ground in May. The first phase involved restoring the stream bank and installing features that will protect against future erosion, like trees, shrubs, and large boulders that will slow stormwater flow.

Next, workers began construction on the 200-foot-long elevated footbridge, which includes an observation platform that gives visitors a view of the Valley Green area. Once the bridge was in place, workers continued with stream restoration and built a stone trailhead just north of the bridge. The footbridge is called “Lida Way,” a mash-up of two donors’ names, Linda and David Glickstein.

Individual donors and private foundations were the project’s largest funding sources, contributing more than $1.3 million combined.

Other funding came from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the state, the city Parks and Recreation Department, and the Philadelphia Water Department.

Those interested in naming planks on the footbridge can visit fow.org for more information.