New Schuylkill River swing bridge debuts today

The big picture: It's the latest and splashiest addition to the city's trail network since the nearby Christian to Crescent Trail Connector went online last year.

State of play: The $28-million rehabilitation project converts the long-defunct railroad bridge into a pedestrian walkway for the first time.

• The bridge is 225 feet long, linking to a pair of spans on the banks of the river that are 95 feet each.
• Overall, the project adds a little less than a mile of new trail to the network.

Worth noting: The bridge will sometimes swing open to allow for river traffic.

• But those closures to pedestrians will be brief: The bridge needs roughly 3 minutes to open and another 3 to close.

✨ 1 notable thing: The new span is the only public swing bridge in the city.

Zoom in: The swing bridge creates 4.7 miles of uninterrupted trails from Bartram's Garden to the Fairmount Water Works beside the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

How to access: From Grays Ferry Crescent on the east side of the Schuylkill River or Bartram's Mile trail on the west.

If you go: The bridge will open after a ribbon-cutting starting at 2pm.

Editor's note: This story was updated to show that the new bridge is the only public swing bridge in the city (not the only swing bridge).