ARC MAGAZINE

Bridges represent a union between counterparts—two distinct entities that span a chasm or threshold and come together in an intricate network of concrete, steel, welding joints and connecting points.

They are a symbol for travel, to be sure, taking us from one place to another. But bridges also symbolize the meeting of two worlds: time and space, heaven and earth, separate but somehow inseparable realities. They are a representation of connection, stability, hope and the potential to live as one in community and harmony.

As for Wendy’s Way, a $6 million cycle/pedestrian bridge linking Cleveland’s Centennial Lake Link Trail, the 101-mile Ohio and Erie Canal Towpath Trail system and the heart of Ohio’s north coast? Ask anyone involved in the decades-long project and they’ll say it’s all those things…. and Moore.

Wendy’s Way is the passion project of businessman/entrepreneur and Cleveland Metroparks Commissioner Dan T. Moore III and his family. Moore has a rather complex, 30-plus-year history with the bridge and the adjoining land—Wendy Park on Whiskey Island

Troubled Path

The short version: for a time, the 22-acre park that runs along both the Cuyahoga River, Lake Erie and the Historic Coast Guard Station resembled equal parts untamed wildlife sanctuary and post-industrial badlands. Moore purchased said land from Great Lakes Dredge & Dock to keep it from landing in the hands of the Greater Cleveland Port Authority.

From there, it bounced around a complex chain of suitors—Conrail, Cuyahoga County and the Cleveland Metroparks—while under custodianship to Moore and his family. There were fraught discussions, overdue taxes, government intrigue, high tensions. Everything a proper local drama requires.

But as a “stubborn advocate” for access to Lake Erie, Moore was determined to bring the parkland and 8-acre marina into modern times. He had a vision and stuck to his hope to make Wendy Park on Whiskey Island a shining example of urban renewal, of equity in public access, and a symbol of love, grief and stick-to-itiveness.

Moore was driven to bring this rocky socket of feral lakeside property into the 21st century following the tragic death of his 29-year-old daughter, Wendy Moore. The revered artist/photographer and first daughter of the Moore family loved the Whiskey Island habitat and frequently made it a subject of her work.

She passed from a traumatic brain injury in a 1997 skiing accident, never to see the park again. It’s not a stretch to say Moore himself was trauma-bonded to the park after Wendy’s untimely passing.

“It was one of the most complicated real estate deals in the history of real estate deals,” Moore says tearfully. “A truly complicated thing, but the good part was, I was along for the ride
for all of it.”

Today, Wendy Park is revered by locals and known across the country as a “must see”
location for visitors to Northeast Ohio.. A variety of wildlife, hikers, bikers, boaters, kayakers, anglers, volleyball leagues, bird watchers and train watchers call Wendy Park on Whiskey Island a home away from home.

Wendy Park’s green space and the artful, newly christened Wendy’s Way stands out among the legacy of warehouses, spires, smokestacks and the Port of Cleveland’s bulk terminal that punctuate Cleveland’s skyline and history. It’s finally arrived at the place where the Moore family always hoped it would.

Bridging Past and Future

Part of a larger $16.45-million (hyphenate) “Re-Connecting Cleveland Federal Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) Trails” project, the seed for Wendy’s Way bridge was decades long in the planting and germination process, according to Heather Moore, one of Dan and wife Marge’s daughters.

“I remember looking at designs dating all the way back to 1999,” she says. “It feels like yesterday and a long time ago all at the same time. A lot of proverbial ground was covered.”

What’s more, with all the labor and logistics involved—from surveying and 3-D laser scanning services, to obtaining railroad right of-entry—the plan required as much fancy footwork as it did handicraft.

It takes a village with vision to get such a project to bloom. With said village and funding finally in place, the bridge took just under two years to complete. Construction began in December 2019 and culminated with a dedication and ribbon-cutting ceremony in the summer of 2021.

“I can say it was all very emotional and still is,” Dan says through tears and a cracking voice.

“But also, very satisfying. The Port Authority wanted that land through eminent domain, and back then they could have been able to get it. We lost a fortune on the project, but our commitment was totally worth it. We wanted this to be organic to community and environment, and that’s exactly what it is today.”

What would the Port Authority have done with the land?

“Lots of asphalt,” Marge laughs as her husband gathers himself. “That’s about it. Asphalt.”

Under the guidance of Cleveland Metroparks chief planning and design officer Sean McDermott, the team walked a tightrope between artists and engineers. McDermott landed on KS Associates, Inc., of Elyria, Ohio, for the Pratt Truss bridge design. Great Lakes Construction Company and Contech Engineered Solutions – both headquartered in Cleveland – manufactured off-site and executed structural assembly on-site.

“Before we landed on the right combination, there was a lot of push-pull between artists and engineers,” says Moore. “You can have an attractive, artful style and design, but it also needs to be manufacturable. Form follows function. Get too separated from that concept? You get into trouble.”

To that end, Wendy’s Way “ticks all the boxes.” Its clean lines are artful, but it also links the Centennial Trail at the northwest corner of the Willow Avenue Vertical Lift Bridge over the Cuyahoga River. It carries pedestrians and bicyclists over industrial properties and Norfolk Southern Railroad tracks, then terminates at Wendy Park on the south end of Whiskey Island.

Some 400 feet of Mechanically Stabilized Earth (MSE) retaining walls at the south approach ramp were needed. Bridge alignment, abutments, at-grade bridge approaches and vandal-protection fencing were also required—not to mention hand-railings, a concrete barrier drainage system for both approaches, lighting and relocating a portion of Whiskey Island Drive to accommodate the design.

And as if that wasn’t enough, construction also required scheduling “timed assembly” around Norfolk Southern Railroad traffic, so as to not impede the company’s daily routes.

“I remember endless meetings, marshalling stakeholders and having the Metroparks as the owner of the park being necessary to push this concept to fruition,” says Halley, the Moores' other daughter.

She said that fundraising was incredibly important, but that “galvanizing all parties in the community around economic development and equity along a transportation corridor” through the TIGER grant made the project a game changer—for fellow investors the Cleveland Foundation and the Gund Foundation and for the park and city as well.

“We are a manufacturing family, but this is of fundamental value—an opportunity to keep pushing forward reimagining how we connect cities together and increase park access,” says Halley. “There were all kinds of benefits that were realized in this process and everyone in the region stands to benefit.”

The resulting 500-foot prefabricated three-span truss bridge with tied-arch main and 12-foot-wide deck fits in with its surroundings perfectly. The bridge itself is a both unique and an exceptional homage to everything surrounding it.

Yet the gateway sculpture pylons that would reflect the personality of its namesake were still to come.

Yusko and Manka: The Guardians of Wendy's Way

In early spring of 2021, the Cleveland Metroparks contacted artists Stephen Manka and Stephen Yusko about a commission for the Wendy Park Bridge. The highly lauded duo was known separately for their acclaimed public art metal sculptures. Bringing the two of them together to create artistic “endcap” pylons for the bridge only stood to double the impact of Wendy’s Way’s visual appeal. Which it did.

Manka is one of Cleveland’s most successful public artists. His Manka Design Studio opened nearly 20 years ago, with its focus trained on public sculpture for Cleveland’s neighborhoods. His work graces Playhouse Square Center, one of the nation’s largest theater districts. Yusko, an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award winner, has worked as a studio metalworker for just as long.

Manka says on his website of his installations, “public art can be a form of urban acupuncture, carefully pinned to amplify aspirations and provocatively tie people to a place and to each other.”

To that end, three design concepts were fleshed out immediately: one tied to the city’s fabled Hulett ore unloaders, one informed by the Coast Guard station, and a third inspired by the Hope Memorial Bridge acolytes, the Guardians of Traffic, who have watched over the city and its automotive bustle since 1932.

The latter won out. Wendy’s Way’s pylon sculptures would tell a story all their (and her) own.

“Once we were funded, it was go-go-go,” says Manka. “We had 90-day timeframe for fabricating and precision welding stainless-steel pylons, laser-cutting artwork, and cycles of forging, angle grinding and fitting.”

“My design process typically begins with outlining factors I would like to relate to,” he explains, outlining the “intersection of public art, sculpture, urban planning and industrial design” they tapped into. “Our collaboration yielded my favorite project yet, his sculptural moments really making this project sing.”

“We used a variety of blacksmithing and metal fabricating techniques in the design, which embody clean lines and purpose,” adds Yusko, who spent several weeks drawing up the three unique concepts before the team settled on the design.

The duo then teamed with Precision Welding in Valley View, which served as chief fabricator for the 1600-pound towers. Constructed from 316 stainless steel, they stand more than 13 feet high. Alro Steel and Penn Stainless also assisted, particularly with laser cutting the imaginative myriad of detail work.

Yusko then TIG welded all the smaller components—doors, cutout boxes, lighting fixtures—and then sorted glass installation, and getting all the pieces in shadowboxes to fit together.

“Our sessions together were chaotic and stressful but always fun,” Yusko recalls. “His computer adeptness, my ability for precise fitting and forming and forging—all the grinding, fitting, tweaking—we learned a ton and had a great working relationship.”

Finally, installation included programmable, color-changing LED lighting on the towertops and lighted boxes that contain bird and floral sculptures. The results make for a striking, incandescent memorial at dusk, dawn and all points in between.

“We were absolutely thrilled to be asked to do this,” says Manka. “It’s a defining moment, for sure.”

“It’s just so whimsical, which is classic Wendy,” says Marge. “And Wendy was a connector. It’s perfect.”

From Inspiration to Awe-Inspiring

In talking with the family, Yusko and Manka “were able to incorporate design elements that shed light into Wendy Moore as a person,” landing on an “amazing, labor-intensive collaboration,” says Yusko. Poppies and other flowers, migratory birds, and clover (honoring Wendy Moore’s birthday, St. Patrick’s Day 1967) were all gentle remembrances laser-cut into the endcaps.

“We were also figuring out a readapting of drawings on old signage at Wendy Park before the Metroparks took it over,” says Heather Moore, who along with Halley took on assisting art direction.

“We wanted to incorporate clover and shamrock, and when we brought in [Manka and Yusko] who had art and architecture in their background, the ideas started rolling and expanding. They wanted to incorporate migratory birds and poppies as a reflection of grief and healing… It was an amazing end-moment for the project,” she added.

Yusko’s memory of watching birds at Wendy Park factored heavily into the design aesthetics as well.

“I’ve seen many raptors there, including bald eagles, osprey, coopers’ hawks, red-tailed hawks, kestrels and peregrine falcons,” he says. “Wendy Park is also a stop-over for many different birds during their spring and fall migrations, so Steve and I wanted to include this aspect of the park in our sculptures.”

“And the lighting adds a beautiful additional level of abstract beauty and a little bit of a light show,” adds Heather, whose background includes glassblowing and studies at the Pilchuck Glass School in Seattle.

“Cleveland is such an industrial town,” she says, “and in that sense, this incredible story about my Dad driven by the loss of his first daughter is incredibly sad, but it’s also incredibly moving.”

She adds: “His resilience resembles that steel. I’m glad Dad had this to channel his grief into and make something positive for the community in Wendy’s name. What an honor it is for him to have a legacy for her.”

And what a legacy it is. In addition to completing this enormous project, Moore and his family have established a protective headgear company called Team Wendy, which provides life protecting supplies for military, police, search-and-rescue and more.

“They make the best helmets in the world,” says Marge. (You can learn more about the venture at www.teamwendy.com).

“I think the takeaway from all this is that if you have enough passion and energy, you can land on what you want to see and do in the world while combating against those things that you don’t,” says Dan.

“That was always Wendy’s way.”