THE “SHAKY BRIDGE”: The old bridge, designed by Brooklyn Bridge creator John A. Roebling, is just one of hundreds of points of interest on nine different walks in the coming weeks led by Trenton Walks! Participants can socialize while exploring the history, culture, and natural surroundings of different sections of Trenton. (Photo courtesy of Trenton Walks!)

By Donald Gilpin

Nine different walks throughout Trenton in the coming weeks will take participants through a park and a marshland, around downtown and into a variety of interesting neighborhoods, and back to the dramatic history of the American Revolution and the story of the D&R Canal.

Sponsored by the Trenton Green Team (TGT) and supported by the Mercer County Action Team (MCAT), the next series of walks begins this Thursday, April 24, and features a stroll on the Delaware & Raritan Canal State Park towpath and Greenway from the Battle Monument through downtown Trenton.

The April 24 noon walk, led by N.J. Conservation Foundation Central Jersey Project Manager and Trenton Walks! co-chair Tim Brill, will start and finish at the monument at 348 North Warren Street and will go for about two miles.

“We invite everyone who enjoys being in and of the Trenton community to join us on any and all walks,” said MCAT Circuit Coalition Leader Corey Hannigan.

Trenton Walks!, just starting its second year, organized and led 34 walks last year, twice a month in the winter and four or five times a month in the spring and summer, with anywhere from 10 to 25 people participating each time.

“We’ve had a lot of fun,” said Trenton Walks! Co-Chair Becky Taylor, who also serves as the co-chair of the Cadwalader Park Alliance (CPA) and was formerly co-president of the Lawrence Hopewell Trail. “I’ve worked in and around the Trenton area most of my career, and I have seen things on these walks that I’d never seen before. When you go on these walks you see things up close and personal. it’s really great.”

Taylor recalled one of the history-focused walks she attended last year. “I can’t tell you how thrilling it was to learn about the pivotal role of Trenton in the American Revolution,” she said. “George Washington routed the Hessians and the British troops in Trenton. I never knew any of this, and it was great to be on the scene where it had all taken place.”

The second walk of the series will be hosted by Taylor, Brill, and TGT leader Larry Paul on Sunday, April 27 at 3 p.m. It will leave from and return to 1399 Riverside Drive in Trenton’s “Island” neighborhood and proceed through Stacy Park along the Delaware River to the “Shaky Bridge,” which was built by Brooklyn Bridge builder John A. Roebling, next to Trenton’s Water Filtration Plant near Calhoun Street.

The Chambersburg and Villa Park neighborhoods are on the agenda for a walk led by Capital City Redevelopment Corporation Director Jeffrey Laurenti on Saturday, May 3 at 9:30 a.m. This walk of approximately three miles “will tour this fascinating part of Trenton, showcasing the neighborhoods’ colorful past and vibrant future,” according to a Trenton Walks! press release.

A Wednesday May 7 noon walk led by Brill and Trenton 365 media personality Jacque Howard will leave from HUB 13 co-working space at 13 West Front Street and proceed along the Assunpink Creek Greenway through Mill Hill Park to Trenton City Hall and back. And on Friday, May 6, leaving from the intersection of Cadwalader Drive and Gordon Avenue at 4:30 p.m., Taylor, along with CPA Board Treasurer Randy Baum and CPA Board Secretary Jordan Antebi, will lead “an intentional ramble” through historic Cadwalader Park.

Plans to reconfigure N.J. Route 29 as an urban boulevard and to redevelop the area to provide a new mix of land uses and enhance pedestrian and bicycle access to the Delaware River will be the focus of a walk on Thursday, May 22 at noon led by Brill, New Jersey Future’s (NJF) Advocacy and Government Affairs Manager Sabrina Rodriguez-Vicenty, and NJF Community Outreach Specialist Ben Dziobek. The walk will leave from and return to the New Jersey Future office at 16 West Lafayette Street.

One history walk focusing on the Revolutionary War, one on the D&R Canal, and one nature walk around Spring Lake in Hamilton Township are scheduled for June. On Sunday, June 1 at 3 p.m., Brill will lead a tour from the Battle Monument through downtown Trenton, focusing on the pivotal role of the First and Second Battles of Trenton in the Revolutionary War.

The history of the D&R Canal, the railroads, and the highways of the Trenton area, as well as the current use of the canal as a water source for about one million N.J. residents, will be the subject of a Wednesday June 4 walk, which sets out from the Battle Monument at noon. Brill and N.J. State Parks, Forests, and Historic Sites Resource Interpretive Specialist Stephanie Vannais will lead the walk.

A Saturday, June 14 walk around Spring Lake led by Mercer County Park Commission Environmental Education Director Kelly Rypkema will feature a portion of the 3,000-acre Abbott Marshlands, home to a large variety of wildlife. Departing from the Tulpehaking Nature Center at 157 Wescott Avenue in Hamilton, the walk will cover about 1.4 miles with lots of time for observation and interpretation.

For more information, including maps and updates, visit Greater Mercer Transportation Management Association’s “Trail Happenings” webpage at gmtma.org/trail-happenings.

“We encourage others who would like to co-lead walks with us to let us know of their interest, and we also seek ideas for new walking routes,” said Brill, who can be reached at tim.brill@njconservation.org or (609) 947-8530.

Taylor added, “It’s really fun to walk with other people to enable people to get together for fun, interesting and healthy activities, and to celebrate the community. Come out and enjoy nature, history, beauty, and each other.”