Located twelve miles northwest of downtown along a gorge trail in Wissahickon Valley Park, this 59-foot long covered pedestrian bridge was the first public art commission designed by artist Jody Pinto. Resembling an outstretched index finger, the work was dedicated in 1987. Flown in by helicopter, and weighing 18,000 pounds, the bridge spans a forty-foot chasm that slopes steeply to the adjacent Wissahickon Creek. Pinto intended the work to symbolically and literally link the human body with the natural environment; deepening the connection between the two.
In 1983, In honor of the city’s tricentennial, the Fairmount Park Art Association (now the Association for Public Art) invited Pinto and others, to design civic infrastructure as site-specific art. Pinto conceived of a work to replace a deteriorating stone staircase built by the Works Progress Administration in the 1930s and collaborated with architect and structural engineer, Sam Harris of the firm Kieran, Timberlake & Harris, to help realize her vison.
Inspired by the human body, the gently arcing, partially enclosed metal bridge is intended to blend with its setting and provide opportunities to “linger and look.” Made of Corten steel, the bridge was designed to change hue over time and meld with the gorge’s densely canopied rocky terrain. The nine-foot-tall artwork is covered by a metal shell, perforated with thousands of half-inch, circular apertures that cast dappled light and allow wind and precipitation to penetrate and pass through. Looking through the enclosure’s perforations and through its grated floor, the work offers visitors views of the creek and gorge. Particularly popular with children, the work invites play and encourages visitors to pause and consider their relationship with nature.
