Copyright Anchorage Daily News
A suspension bridge and an adjacent interpretive center will replace Girdwood’s popular Winner Creek Trail hand tram. The hand tram, a suspended basket cage that required hikers to manually pull themselves across a narrow gorge 100 feet above Glacier Creek, closed indefinitely in 2019 after two people fell from the platform. The first incident was fatal, and the second left a hiker with serious injuries. After the accidents, the Girdwood Board of Supervisors reported that the acquisition of insurance, as well as safety upgrades around the platform, would be necessary to reopen the tram. With input from the local trails committee, the Girdwood Valley Service Area decided the most practical solution was to install a suspension bridge. Following approval from the Anchorage Assembly on Tuesday, Girdwood Parks and Recreation, as part of the valley’s service area, will use $500,000 in savings to fund the bridge project. According to Girdwood Valley Service Area manager Kyle Kelley, the project so far has received $1.7 million in grants. He said he is hopeful Tuesday’s transfer will close the final funding gap. Funding delays, tariffs on steel and the government shutdown have slowed down progress. Kelley said construction should begin next summer, putting the service area one step closer to restoring the loop trail system in Girdwood. The long-term goal is to work with the U.S. Forest Service to build this bridge, Kelley said, and then hand over maintenance and ownership to the federal agency. Even before the hand tram’s closure, Kelley described it as a “maintenance nightmare.” The trail, once rugged, had become more accessible and popular, leading to long lines of people that snaked from either side waiting to use the tram. To shuttle people back and forth, some hikers tried to move the tram faster than it was originally designed to accommodate. The tram needed constant attention, and it became difficult for the service area to keep up, Kelley said. The creek crossing is recognized as a vital connection for the Alaska Long Trail, a proposed 500-mile route that would allow hikers to travel between Seward and Fairbanks, as well as for the Iditarod Trail system, Kelley said. The state awarded $1.2 million for the project as part of funding for the Alaska Long Trail, which could eventually include the Winner Creek Trail. “It will be a gem within what offerings there are in the region, especially for hiking and biking,” Kelley said. The hand tram is one of the many important links in the history of crossing Glacier Creek, Kelley said. It’s been done in many different ways over the years, from people wading through the creek to those who attached carabiners to suspend wires to slide across, he said. The project plans include repurposing the shelter over one of the hand tram terminals and creating an interpretive center that tells stories from the gold mining days and the area’s transition to tourism, said Mike Edgington of the Girdwood Board of Supervisors. “It’s an area where you see this constant change,” Edgington said. “The most positive way of looking at it is the hand tram was one of these phases, and the new one will be a suspension bridge.” According to a Girdwood Trails Committee report from February, the tram was “one of the biggest trail draws in the Girdwood Valley for visitors and locals alike,” and became a popular summer attraction for visitors during the 18 years it was in use. Edgington said while he is excited about having a suspension bridge, it will always be tinged with the sadness of knowing the events that led to it. “It’ll be a little bittersweet, I think, for me and for a lot of people,” Edgington said.
