Sentry Bridge at Watkins Glen State Park
A new pedestrian bridge crafted with wonder
2024–
Introduction
Watkins Glen is a place for the senses. Its storied paths welcome adventurers of all ages to move through woodland stillness and into the roar of rushing water. Attention turns from the green luminous cliffs above, down to the micro-bryophyte worlds growing and ancient sedimentary stone below.
Watkins Glen has hosted a collection of bridges spanning nearly two centuries of craft. The design of the new Sentry Bridge, created as a collaboration with schlaich bergermann partner (sbp) and New York State Parks, will be the most recent structure in a long tradition of pedestrian bridges, paths, and lookouts along the popular, waterfall-filled Gorge Trail. Learning from its predecessors, the New Sentry Bridge brings together the material stories of the bridges gone before – steel, concrete, wood, and stone – and assembles them into a construction rooted in both past and future.
Technical details
New York State Parks, Recreation & Historic Preservation (NYS Parks)
The new 46 ft. long Sentry Bridge will span across the gorge in an arching steel-structured cantilever. The design is a lightweight evolution of the former arched bridge with the stronger rock of the gorge’s north side supporting its structure. Alluding to the curved form of the previous bridge, the half-arch design disappears behind the rocks, leading visitors into the park’s gorge.
Craftsmanship is celebrated with materials that are direct, unadorned, and welcoming to the marks of time. Pelleted stainless-steel, bronze details, board-form concrete, wood railings, and local stone each reveal the act of making and capture the rich nature and history of the gorge.
To avoid disturbing the unique ecology and geology of Watkins Glen, the bridge structure will be fabricated entirely off site as a single span, and will then be lowered into place by crane. Construction will commence in 2025, with the opening of the bridge anticipated for the 2026 season.
