Raw materials, including lumber for the bridge and boardwalk and the hundreds of galvanized steel posts that support the boardwalk, cost about $400,000, he said.
But just as unusual, she said, is who built the bridge and boardwalk.
Here, hundreds of volunteers spent thousands of hours building the bridge and boardwalk through soggy wetlands.
The bridge and boardwalk are already a hit with many residents here -- hikers as well as strollers.
To build the bike path extension, which is suspended over the water like a concrete bridge or boardwalk, workers had to sink 102 pilings into bedrock, 78 of them in the water, Mr. Benepe said.
Ms. Blau worked in Atlantic City over the last few years on the Pier Shops at Caesars, a $175-million shopping and restaurant complex connected to the hotel by a bridge over the Boardwalk.
It then turns in a southeastern direction along the New York border for about 30 mile, passing over long sections of boardwalk bridges over marshy land, then entering Wawayanda State Park and then the Abram S. Hewitt State Forest just before entering New York near Greenwood Lake.
We stepped over tree roots and rocks, and traversed a boardwalk of bridges on the Island Trail, a four-mile hike along the shoreline with breathtaking views of coves, towering forests and, of course, Lake Michigan.
He and his colleagues had caught pythons on bridges and on boardwalks, along roadways and along the edges of canals.
Swimmers, slackers, anglers, umbrellas, boats, kites, children, sand, water, boardwalks, bridges, more sand - and sand sculptures! - and more water.
