Crow’s Nest: A New Eagle Scout Footbridge on Creek Trail

A small black dog stands on a footbridge at Crow’s Nest Preserve

By Daniel Barringer, Preserve Manager.

Earlier this spring Scouts from Troop 140 assisted Eagle Scout candidate Ethan Graef with his Eagle Project at Crow’s Nest Preserve. The purpose of an Eagle Project is for a Scout to demonstrate leadership in completing a service or improvement for a nonprofit or public organization.

Our old telephone-pole footbridge on the Creek Trail was showing its age. It’s one of the first projects I did at Crow’s Nest almost 30 years ago, and it spanned about 30′. The bridge was easily on its 3rd or 4th generation of deck boards, but the base the deck is screwed into was becoming so rotted it would no longer hold screws. It was time to replace it with a modern bridge over one of the several areas that let floodwaters expand and recede along French Creek while keeping the trail open.

Removing the old bridge was no small task, but after staff cut up the poles with a chainsaw, Scouts carried out the pieces for disposal. The location is only reachable on foot, not with wheeled equipment, so Ethan designed the replacement bridge to be built in sections in his garage. Then Scouts’ many hands transported the modules to the final location where they were bolted together. The old bridge was cabled to trees to keep it from washing away in floodwaters; the new footbridge is anchored at all four corners with concrete footers.

We’re thrilled with how it turned out and are looking forward to many years of use, joining three other Eagle Scout footbridges (and two others built by staff) along the Creek Trail. We hope you enjoy the improvement.