By Eleanor Boudreau
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkno/local-wkno-938698.mp3
Memphis, TN –
A new footbridge over the Wolf River is open at Shelby Farms Park. It hasn't always been easy for exercise and outdoor enthusiasts to move from the surrounding city into and out of Shelby Farms, at least not without getting in their cars. That's what the Wolf River Pedestrian Bridge and the new Greenline that runs from Midtown Memphis to the park help to correct.
The bridge is about a mile south of the Visitor Center and Patriot Lake, on the opposite side of Walnut Grove Road. It connects the Greenline, which used to be train tracks, and has an urban feel, to the more wilderness-like trails of the Wolf River Greenway, and, of course, the river itself.
"You can canoe this all the way from Houston Levee Road, all the way to the Mississippi River and you see basically two or three buildings the whole time," said Tony Brooks.
Brooks biked to join paddlers, hikers, and joggers admiring the bridge at the grand opening Sunday, and Brooks got at least a little river on him because his bike was very muddy.
The base and trestle of the bridge are cement and metal but the bridge is topped with warmer, softer, wooden planks; and at one end--the one nearest the wooded, natural Wolf River Greenway--these planks sprout and angle off to the side, so the structure looks like it, too, is a part of the forest.
Shelby Farms is 4,500 acres and surrounded by urban development on all sides, making it one of the largest city parks in America.
Alex Garvin, a professor at Yale's School of Architecture helped plan Shelby Farms.
"Unlike some of the other large parks we have which are in the desert in Arizona, this park will be used by a lot of people, and it's right in the center of Shelby County which means it can be used by everyone in the county," he said.
Garvin sees Shelby Farms becoming as important to the identity of Memphis as Central Park is to New York, and he sees the real estate around the park developing in a similarly prosperous direction. When will we get to that bridge? Garvin says in 150 years.
But, for now, the Wolf River Pedestrian Bridge is here for everyone to cross, and enjoy.