Soon, you could get from Columbia’s Riverfront Park to island oasis on foot. What to know

On one side of the Broad River is Columbia’s bustling riverfront park — a sprawling green space complete with running trails, hammock stands and scenic views tucked into the shadow of the Columbia Canal. On the other side of the river is the Saluda Riverwalk and a path to Boyd Island, a natural oasis in the center of the confluence of Columbia’s three rivers.

Soon, a 450-foot bridge will connect the attractions, tying together a trail network years in the making and creating another avenue for people to get to one of the area’s hidden gems.

“A lot of people in our personal circle don’t know where Boyd Island is or how to get to it,” said George Bailey, president of the Darnall W. and Susan F. Boyd Foundation, which is paying for the bridge.

The 7-acre island park officially opened in 2023, after more than a decade of work by the River Alliance, the Boyd Foundation, and with some help from the city of Columbia , which owned the uninhabited and largely unused island.

But it’s remained a hidden gem, Bailey said. He hopes that the new bridge will help more people discover the park, which is uniquely situated where three rivers meet. Currently it’s only accessible from the first phase of the Saluda Riverwalk, which people can access from Candi Lane.

A bridge across the Broad River had pretty much always been part of the River Alliance’s plans, the group responsible for the Midlands’ Three Rivers Greenway. Richland County penny tax dollars paid for the first phase of the Saluda Riverwalk, which runs from the Interstate 26 interchange down the Saluda River to Boyd Island. But funding for the next phase, to connect Boyd Island to Columbia’s Riverfront Park, was in flux.

The Boyd Foundation stepped in, promising to pay an estimated $3.6 million for the bridge, if Richland County would pay $2.2 million in penny tax dollars to connect the Saluda Riverwalk between Boyd Island and the new bridge, said Mike Dawson, CEO of the River Alliance.

Construction on the new bridge could begin before the end of 2024. The work is expected to take up to 18 months.

Eventually, the goal is to connect the trail system from the Columbia Canal all the way to the Lake Murray Dam. The Irmo-Chapin Recreation Commission is working on a separate trail project , building trails from the Lake Murray Dam to the I-26 interchange.

Dawson said compared to building a bridge, building those trails will be relatively easy.

“Crossing the river is the hard part,” Dawson said. “The Broad River Bridge is the key to all this.”

The trail connections will also have to wait for the State Department of Transportation to finish work on the Carolina Crossroads project , which will overhaul the I-26 and I-126 interchange not-so-affectionately referred to as Malfunction Junction. That project is expected to be under construction until at least 2029, according to the Department of Transportation.

“Everytime we do one of these things, I think, ‘Wow … this is the greatest project we’ve ever done,’” Dawson said, but he added the best part is seeing people use the river walks.

He recently accompanied a travel photographer on a trip to the Saluda, “and (the riverwalk) is swarming with people … these are legitimate citizens having a great time on the river and enjoying the heck out of this place.”