Chris Byrne, a soon-to-be Eagle Scout who rebuilt a suspension bridge off the Henry’s Woods Loop Trail in Lake Placid, smiles outside St. Agnes Catholic Church in the village on Friday, June 30. (News photo — Lauren Yates)

LAKE PLACID — When Lake Placid Middle-High School Class of 2023 graduate Chris Byrne was a kid, he and his family spent weekends meandering through the Henry’s Woods Trail System on Bear Cub Lane. Byrne wasn’t the biggest fan of the trail system itself, but he was all about the “Bridge to Nowhere” off the 2-mile Loop Trail.

“I would want to always see the bridge — I would always want to get to that point,” he said. “So up until then, I wouldn’t complain about the walk because, at the end, I knew that I’d get to the bridge.”

The Bridge to Nowhere led from the trail to a large boulder that was perfect for perching and overlooking a nearby river. Best of all, in the eyes of a young Byrne, the bridge was stationary in some places and suspended in others, giving bridge-walkers a good bounce as they made their way across it. That bouncing sensation was the young Byrne’s motivation for walking the trail system with his brother and parents — his uplifting reward after a long trek. So when Byrne, who’s now 17, noticed that the bridge was removed a couple of years ago after falling into disrepair, he decided he wanted to rebuild it. He wanted other young kids to have the same positive experience in Henry’s Woods as he did when he was a kid.

“I knew that I enjoyed it growing up, and I knew that other kids would enjoy it if I rebuilt it,” he said.

Byrne is a Boy Scout, and he needed to complete an environmentally focused community project as part of his requirements for becoming an Eagle Scout. He decided that rebuilding the Bridge to Nowhere was the perfect community project. And with the rebuild, Byrne decided he’d like to construct it completely suspended — for maximum bounce factor.

Lake Placid Boy Scout Chris Byrne poses at the Bridge to Nowhere along the Henry’s Woods Loop Trail. (Provided photo)

But Byrne didn’t have much experience in woodworking. He was more interested in the biology and medicine fields at Lake Placid High School — as part of the BOCES New Visions program — taking after his father, Lake Placid orthopedic surgeon Eugene Byrne. But Chris said he’s a quick study, and he was interested in learning how to build the bridge.

“It was something that I knew was a lot different than what I usually do in my day-to-day,” Chris said. “That’s kind of what drove me to do it, was because it was going to be something new.”

Someone connected Byrne with Billy Walton, the co-owner of Experience Outdoors on Cascade Road, who’s built suspension bridges for his business in the past. The two agreed to work together to rebuild the Bridge to Nowhere.

Henry’s Woods Trail System is owned by the Henry Uihlein II and Mildred A. Uihlein Foundation, and Byrne had to appeal to the foundation’s board to get the project done. He attended two meetings: one to pitch his idea to rebuild the bridge and another to present his and Walton’s plans for the rebuild. In the end, it was the Uihlein Foundation that funded Byrne’s project with a grant of around $3,000.

Byrne and Walton got to work on the bridge a few months ago. They built trusses in Walton’s woodshop, and an excavator was brought to the site to remove the old bridge’s posts and clear out the area. Altogether, Byrne and Walton spent around three days in the woodworking shop and three days installing the bridge.

Though Byrne said he probably won’t get into a career of woodworking, he learned a lot while constructing the bridge and came to appreciate the craftsmanship skills it takes to complete a project like that.

“It’s a lot harder than I thought it would be,” he said.

Byrne and Walton finished the project about a month ago, and the Boy Scouts held a ceremony on June 19 to mark the grand reopening. During the ceremony, Byrne saw kids playing and bouncing along the bridge.

“It was definitely good to see because that was what I was doing when I was their age,” Byrne said. “I definitely did see people that reminded me of myself.”

Byrne is now preparing to attend the University of South Carolina in Columbia in the fall with a goal of entering medical or physician assistant school. And now that he’s completed his Boy Scouts community project, he only has to earn a couple more merit badges before he becomes an Eagle Scout — just like his brother and his dad.