Elliot Munson

The best way to bridge together Lehigh and the South Side community, all while providing connection and opportunity, may be an otherwise empty field. One of the greatest and most ancient forms of human connection has been athletics. Whether that was the ancient Olympics, uniting disparate city states across the Aegean region, or physical trials to keep the Yupik tribe fit during the Alaskan winter, communities have always found ways to engage in competitive physical recreation.

Steel’s downhill descent isn’t always a bad thing. No feeling in the world compares to the excitement of tearing down a mountain bike trail on a steel frame with wheels, flying over jumps and hoping you have the skill to make it to the bottom alongside your friends. Expanding Lehigh’s existing cycling infrastructure is a time and cost-efficient way to improve the community, providing a shared source of sweat to build closer relationships.

Bethlehem is built on steel bones. Metal railways throughout the city once carried the material that built New York City, ushered in the age of the skyscraper and created weaponry in two world wars. Today, the South Bethlehem Greenway traces the outline of the old Norfolk Southern rail corridor that moves material from Bethlehem to beyond, tying together the South Side community and stretching all the way to Hellertown.