Bronx Zoo Visitors Will Soon Be Able to Zip Line Across the Bronx River

Animals aren’t the Bronx Zoo’s only attraction. The famous New York City zoo sits on 265 acres of park and natural lands and is bisected by the area’s only freshwater river, the Bronx River. Beginning this summer, Gothamist reports that adventurous visitors will get the chance to view the waterway from high in the sky, on a new zip line that whizzes them across the river.

The course is more than 400 feet long, and runs back and forth across the Bronx River. Visitors will soar 50 feet above the water, giving them a rare glimpse of the river's wetlands.

"It’s an amazing river in our city, but not everybody gets to see it," Sue Chin, the vice president of planning and design and chief architect at the Wildlife Conservation Society, told DNAinfo New York. (The Wildlife Conservation Society manages the Bronx Zoo, along with the Central Park Zoo, New York Aquarium, Prospect Park Zoo, and Queens Zoo.) "Certainly, they don’t get the experience of seeing it this way."

The zip line is part of a new year-round zoo experience, the Bronx Zoo Treetop Adventure, which will open sometime this summer. (The WCS initially announced the zip line would open on June 16, but the opening date has since been postponed.) In addition to an aerial rope slide, the Treetop Adventure will include seven ropes courses, ranging from easy to advanced. Two-hour climbing tickets will cost $65, while a two-way river crossing will be $35. For $75, visitors will be able to purchase a combined ticket. (Both attractions will be ticketed separately from the Bronx Zoo, so you’ll need to purchase another pass to see the animals.)

For safety purposes, Bronx Zoo Treetop Adventure participants must be ages 7 and up, between 50 and 275 pounds, and able to touch a height of 5 feet, 6 inches while standing flat on the ground.

Don’t meet those criteria? The zoo has created an additional new experience—a netted bridge-and-tower course and nature play area called the Bronx Zoo Nature Trek—that’s suitable for the entire family. It opens on June 23, and admission is included with the purchase of a Bronx Zoo Total Experience Ticket.

You can check out some pictures of the zip line and the Bronx Zoo’s new aerial obstacle courses below.

Photo credit: Julie Larsen Maher © WCS

[h/t Gothamist]