A massive timber bridge measuring nearly 300 feet long, the length of a city block, was installed at the High Line over the weekend. Called the Moynihan Connector, this new connection to the elevated park will link the High Line’s current terminus at West 30th Street and 10th Avenue to a public plaza within the Manhattan West development, creating a seamless pedestrian path from the transit hubs of Penn Station and Moynihan Train Hall in Midtown to the West Village.
After the bridge was assembled on the ground, construction crews used two cranes to lift it into place 25 feet above Dyer Avenue. The wooden truss bridge, which weighs 128 tons, is made up of 163 Alaskan Yellow Cedar beams. After the sections of the bridge were hoisted into the air, they were lowered down onto steel columns.
The Moynihan Connector runs along West 30th toward West 31st Street, and takes a 90-degree turn at Dyer Avenue, at the entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel. This is where the bridge can be found, running north into the public plaza at Manhattan West.
Running along 30th Street is the Woodland Bridge, another part of the Moynihan Connector. This bridge will contain 5-foot deep soil containers for lush plantings to grow from along the path. The two bridges will be visually connected by Corten steel decking and bronze handrails. The connector design is a collaboration between James Corner Field Operations, who was a part of the High Line’s original design team, and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.
The Moynihan Connector, which was first proposed in early 2021, is expected to open to the public in the summer of 2023! The $50M project, which extends the park another 1,200 feet, is a public-private partnership between Friends of the High Line, Empire State Development, and Brookfield Properties. See more photos of the bridge installation in the gallery below!
Next, check out 10 Secrets of the High Line
