Monday, October 24, 2011

Cynwyd Trail Opens; Manayunk Bridge Within View

Yesterday, Lower Merion Township threw itself a great party to celebrate the opening of the Cynwyd Heritage Trail, a 2.0 mile trail from the Cynwyd Station over to the Black Hill Road, running alongside the ridge that meets the Manayunk Bridge. It was attended by many elected officials, families, cyclists and many dogs! The trail has both a paved 12 foot path for cyclists and a separate gravel path for pedestrians. It's accessible from the Cynwyd Station and the Bala Park. This opening was particularly sweet for Lower Merion's Assistant Director of Planning, Chris Leswing, the Friends of Cynwyd Trail, and the hundreds of volunteers who worked so hard to make this trail a reality. Hats off to the leadership shown by Lower Merion Township and Montgomery County for providing most of the funding to build this trail.

On October 20, 2011, Mayor Michael Nutter, Deputy Mayor Rina Cutler, SEPTA General Manager Joe Casey, DVRPC Executive Director Barry Seymour, Montgomery County Commissioners Matthews (Chair) and Hoeffel and Lower Merion Commissioners Elizabeth Rogan (President), George Manos, Scott Zelov and Brian McGuire held a press event to kickoff the partnership between Philadelphia, Montgomery County and Lower Merion to build a new trail on top of SEPTA's Manayunk Bridge to connect the Cynwyd Trail to the Schuylkill River Trail. Funding for this trail is being provided by PennDOT and the William Penn Foundation and the trail design is being conducted by Whitman Requardt and Associates and overseen by the Schuylkill Project. Everyone was super excited to see the views from the Bridge and the plans for turning it into a trail and destination park. We're on pins and needles waiting for this ribbon cutting in 2013. More photos of both events here.

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