Earlier this summer, pedestrians and cyclists in northern Manhattan and the Bronx were surprised to learn that the walkway on the Henry Hudson Bridge, which spans the Harlem River to connect Inwood Hill Park with the neighborhoods of Spuyten Duyvil and Riverdale, would be closed due to construction. For three years.

In 2004, the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council (NYMTC) counted hundreds of greenway cyclists and pedestrians entering Inwood Hill Park at Dyckman Street, just south of the HHB. Now, instead of making their way through the last remaining natural forest in Manhattan, greenway users enroute to the Bronx — as well as residents of Inwood, Spuyten Duyvil and Riverdale who use the HHB walkway for transportation and recreation — must detour east to the far less hospitable Broadway Bridge.

Streetsblog has queried the MTA office of Bridges and Tunnels for specifics on the planned three-year shutdown, a longer period than it took to construct the HHB itself.