The hulking old railway bridge across Main Street in East Toledo is gone, and in its place is an airy footbridge for pedestrians that connects Glass City Metropark and International Park.
City officials held a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Thursday, and the Toledo Roadrunners Club ran across the bridge at the event as its first official users. The $1.8 million project is key to the Metroparks’ expansion goals. Having put a park within five miles of every resident in Lucas County, the next step is to connect every park with a multi-purpose trail network.
“We do this to improve the quality of life in our region,” said Dave Zenk, executive director of Metroparks Toledo. “We do this to improve the community’s health. We do this to improve the regional identity.”
The bridge connects six individual neighborhoods that have historically been neglected by city infrastructure developers, Mr. Zenk said. It also is part of the city’s plan to develop the Glass City Riverwalk, which will be a five-mile greenway along both sides of the Maumee River.
It also emphasizes the spirit of connection city leaders hope to cultivate in the region.
“Successful cities, successful organizations, successful people look to build bridges and to make connections,” Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz said. “This is a metaphor for how we want to be. This is a metaphor for the kind of place Toledo is.”
The bridge is a gray structure with soaring arches on either side. It’s 20 feet wide, and 110 feet long. Flowerpots line either side, and gently sloping paths run from the bridge to street level on both connecting ends.
“The aesthetic of this bridge fits in magnificently with what is taking place on the east side,” said Dave Gedeon, the vice president of transportation for the Toledo Metropolitan Area Council of Governments. “The revitalization over here is magnificent.”
The idea for the bridge and Glass City Riverwalk project came when community leaders realized the downtown riverfront was being underutilized. Instead of storing salt and allowing empty warehouses sit on the land, they hoped to turn the Maumee’s banks into a community space and economic driver.
SmithGroup, a design company, developed plans for a bridge based on feedback from East Toledoans, who wanted a bridge that didn’t loom overhead. This feedback was collected with the support of the East Toledo Family Center. Mosser Construction built the structure. In all, 80 percent of the project was funded by a federal grant secured by TMACOG.
“We are connecting smiles to experiences,” said Kevin Dalton, a commissioner with the Metroparks Toledo board. A former first-grade teacher in the area, he said that children have been wildly excited about the bridge construction during his school visits.
“This is an opportunity to help our community grow and prosper,” he said.
The next phase of the riverwalk development project, Mr. Zenk said, will be on the downtown side of Toledo, between the Fort Industry Square and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Bridge.
First Published July 21, 2022, 9:04 p.m.
