Wallace Stevens Bridge project recently completed
by Daniel Kelman
It all started with a broken sidewalk.
Back in 2021, I became increasingly concerned with the condition of the sidewalk on the bridge connecting Hartford’s Asylum Hill with the West End, located between Stones VII and VIII on the Wallace Stevens Walk.
I had heard about Hartford Decide$, which promotes participatory budgeting in the City of Hartford (www.hartforddecides.org), and submitted a proposal to repair the damaged sidewalks and install a plaque in Stevens’ honor. This Asylum Avenue bridge, over the North Branch of the Park River, forms a critical pathway along the Wallace Stevens Walk, which follows Stevens’ daily route from his workplace at the Hartford Accident & Indemnity Company (“The Hartford”) to his home on Westerly Terrace. Hundreds of pedestrians, runners, dog-walkers, and students at the nearby Classical Magnet School traverse both sides of this bridge each day. My proposed cost (a wild guess!) was $19,000, well under that year’s $40,000 total budget. Hartford residents voted to approve the project, which clearly addressed a local need. I received a strong endorsement from Dennis Barone on behalf of the Hartford Friends and Enemies of Wallace Stevens, who supplied a bridge-related excerpt from Stevens’ poem “Metaphors of a Magnifico” for the plaque.
The project proved to be much more difficult than expected, due to utility lines and conduits running under the bridge. It took five years, but the sidewalk repair and plaque installation were finally completed in June 2026. A formal dedication ceremony is planned.