By Jody Callahan - The Commercial Appeal -

Two months ago, Paul Kaman dropped $700 on a new bike, a Trek 1.1 Alpha.

That was in anticipation of what happened Sunday, as local dignitaries gathered in the woods near Shelby Farms to dedicate a new bridge over the Wolf River.

With the opening of the 200-foot span, cyclists, joggers and hikers can now access more remote areas of the park. The bridge will connect not only with Memphis' just-completed paved paths but also with more primitive trails through the Lucius E. Burch Jr. State Natural Area.

Kaman biked to the bridge Sunday afternoon, about six miles from his East Memphis home.

"Exercise, getting my son out," Kaman said when asked how he plans to utilize the new span. "It's definitely a great place to jog, too."

Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell, U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., and other officials gathered in Sunday afternoon's wintry chill with groups of joggers, hikers, cyclists and kayakers who converged on the bridge from various starting points.

"It's not so much that we're celebrating the bridge, but what the bridge represents," said Laura Adams, executive director of the Shelby Farms Park Conservancy, which operates the park under an agreement with the county. "It's a bridge between nature and the urban sides of ourselves."

The bridge and connector trails, at a cost of $1.85 million, are part of the Wolf River Greenway Phase 2, a 1.5-mile paved pathway across from the Baptist Women's Hospital. The new span is about a mile upstream from the Walnut Grove Road bridge, near where Shady Grove Road meets Humphreys Boulevard.

City officials are working on Phase 3 of the greenway from where it left off at Shady Grove, extending it to within hundreds of feet of the city of Germantown's Wolf River trails, which extend another three miles along the river.

Work is expected to begin next summer and be complete by early 2012.

Still, some work remains on the bridge, Adams said.

The wooden planks that form the pathway over the bridge are temporary, she said. Those pine planks will be replaced with a distinctive Brazilian hardwood, when that becomes available. The pine will then be reused in the park. Also, a bench will be installed on the bridge.

Adams said they could have waited for the Brazilian wood but wanted to open the bridge as soon as possible.

That work is expected to be done in the spring. The bridge will likely be closed from one to three weeks while the wood is replaced.

Meanwhile, those involved expect the bridge and trails to get heavy use by then.

"It's a more natural setting to run in," said Michael Moore, a former high school cross-country runner. "It's kinda neat to (join) the urban part of the city with something more rural."

-- Jody Callahan: 529-6531