Crossing the Schuylkill
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JJ.
JJ.-
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Circumnavigating the city involves crossing the Schuylkill River twice…
Downstream by the Delaware River:
The closest bridge that crosses the Schuylkill near its confluence at the Delaware is the I-95 Bridge and is NOT RECOMMENDED. It does not have a safe footpath, although there is a catwalk underneath it that I would very much like to explore someday. If you know who I should talk to to get a tour of that catwalk, please put us in touch or invite them to a walk event.
The Platt Bridge has protected sidewalks on either side, but the southern/downstream side should be used. (It connects nicely to the new Wawa at the east end, although the west end still dumps you into some overgrown meadow lands at the side of the highway without a proper sidewalk… thankfully the roads get smaller and less trafficked by the time you might want to cross over towards the airport hotels.) The northern / upstream walkway dumps you onto an on-ramp for I-95… NOT RECOMMENDED.
Some of our walkers have also gone as far as taking the Passyunk Ave bridge when the Platt Bridge walkway was blocked by construction.
Upstream by City Ave:
The City Ave bridge actually has a nice protected walkway with wheelchair curb cuts, but accessing it is tough… and also basically has you on some highway on-ramps.
There are several other options that our walkers have explored:
The Falls Bridge has a great walkway, but getting between there and City Ave isn’t great pedestrian walking.
Upstream from there, there’s the Pencoyd Bridge, a little abandonned rail bridge that may eventually be turned into a pedestrian walkway, the Manayunk Bridge that already has been, and then the Green Lane Bridge. There aren’t always easy sidewalk accesses to all of these, so be careful no matter which path you choose.
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This topic was modified 2 months, 3 weeks ago by JJ.
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This topic was modified 2 months, 3 weeks ago by
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We made it across the City Ave bridge smoothly yesterday, but can confirm that that segment remains quite hairy. Hopefully the city will someday install some buffered bike & pedestrian options on those shoulders under I-76!
We crossed on the north side, which I’m familiar with, although I’m hoping to go explore the south side options sometime.
Please remember that you’re undertaking the walk at your own risk, and that if there’s ever a place where you don’t feel safe there’s always options to backtrack, go around, or find another way.
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