Brooklyn’s got a brand new bridge.
The long-awaited Squibb Park Bridge opened Thursday, offering pedestrians a 450-foot, zig-zagging shortcut from Brooklyn Heights to Brooklyn Bridge Park — along with some of the borough’s best views of the Manhattan skyline, the Statue of Liberty, and the substantially larger Brooklyn Bridge.
The eight-foot wide, $4.9-million pedestrian path crosses the Brooklyn–Queens Expressway and Furman Street and descends 50 feet from Squibb Park on Columbia Heights onto Pier 1 in the 85-acre green space below, following a course that resembles the Greek letter sigma.
“The views are tremendous,” said Brooklyn Heights resident Susan Lane as she made her first stroll across the pathway. “I love the way it meanders. It’s not just a straight pathway — it’s really nicely designed.”
The locust wood and galvanized steel bridge, which was funded primarily by Borough President Markowitz and members of the City Council, looks and feels less like Roebling’s great span and more like a hiking bridge in the Catskills — and that’s the point.
“The Squibb Park Bridge design makes use of trail bridge technology,” reads a sign at the entrance of bridge. “It is built with cable and wood, much like hundreds of trail bridges in our state and national parks. Since it is designed to be lightweight and flexible, the bridge will bounce as you walk over it.”
A reporter for The Brooklyn Paper determined that the bridge, designed by structural engineer and MacArthur “genius” Ted Zoli, is in fact springy, especially when runners dart by.
But bikers beware: cycling on the bridge is not permitted on the pathway.
Reach reporter Natalie Musumeci at nmusumeci@cnglocal.com or by calling (718) 260-4505. Follow her at twitter.com/souleddout.
