Schuylkill Crossing Swing Bridge opens in Grays Ferry Friday

There's a new path to walk, bike, and explore Philly, and it's opening tomorrow. The Schuylkill Crossing Swing Bridge is officially opening after being worked on eight years ago. Yeah, it's been a while. Let's get out to Hank, who's getting a preview of the bridge this morning. Hi, Hank. Yeah, good morning, guys. I think that's when that original meeting took place, and tomorrow will be the official day that they open up this Schuylkill Crossing Swing Bridge. And if you heard that horn go off, that literally means... It's about to take a quick rotation right now with Tyler Burrell, who is, I guess, the major domo around here on this particular thing. I don't know about that. I'm the city's construction manager for the project, assistant chief construction engineer for Philadelphia Department of Streets. Well, thank you, Tyler, and congratulations, because it looks fantastic as we see it about to open. It actually is opening right now. It's really kind of a fascinating thing. Tell us what we're seeing. So what you're seeing now is our operational swing truss built for bikes and pedestrians actually moving into the open position. This is what will happen when we have maritime traffic that needs to come up and down the river and get to all points north on the Schuylkill. Right. Now there's not a ton of maritime traffic coming up and down the river. It has to be this way because the Coast Guard mandates that it's a navigable passage. So it simply has to be this way. Exactly. We're only 26 feet, one inch off the mean high tide mark here. So because of that, and because this area is navigable per the US Coast Guard, we have to be able to swing out of the way should any large traffic need to get up river or down. Tyler, brand new piece of bridge. But I mean, I'm not completely out of school. My dad was an architect, but you all are using original pieces of the bridge, the pivot in the center, the moorings on either end. You maintain the look of the place with a brand new piece of gear. It's kind of gorgeous. I'm really into it. Yeah, you're right. I think they did a good job kind of dovetailing the old and new to kind of pay homage to the old crossing here. You know, we have the approach spans are actually from the original 1901 train structure, as well as the piers that you see that everything's resting upon. Everything on top of that steel though, Everything on top of the stone as well is all brand new. One of the oldest cities in the nation, I don't even want something like this. To look super new, it looks just about perfect to me as it is. What's the meaning of being able to lock off this crossing over the Schuylkill here? You're connecting essentially Grace Ferry to Bartram's Garden, which means neighborhoods can run across the river to one another, have lunch, go shopping, call it what you will, but it accessifies the city a bit. Exactly. I mean, we want this to be kind of your dependable route to work, your dependable route using it for your running route after work, whatever you want to do, be able to enjoy the green space of the city. has to offer. This allows the city to be connected and allows communities to grow with that connection. So we're really excited about that. Okay, so what are the details for tomorrow if people want to come down and celebrate? Is it a public opening? It is a public opening. We're having an opening about right where we're standing here tomorrow, Friday the 13th at 2 p.m. All right, 2 p.m. guys, be here. And as you take a look up there, know, Thomas, Alex, know that it doesn't really necessarily open all that often. We have seen a small boat or two through here. Nothing that you'd need to open the bridge up for, but just to make sure that the mechanics of it work, they'll certainly be opening it up for any tall boats or cranes or barges that go by, but they're going to have full crews down here whenever they open it up, so no yahoos go trying to ride the bridge one way or the other. This is Philadelphia, after all, but take a look at it, guys. This represents a significant step forward for health, for hiking, for bicyclists, not just here, but all the way up to Reading, where the other end of the trail is. Guys? I remember when they were starting to work on that bridge. Can't believe it has been all this time, eight years, but finally back open.