Bridgeton City Park offers trails, zoo and summer water fun

Bridgeton City Park packs 1,100 acres of trails, lakes and fields beside free Cohanzick Zoo. If you want water play too, the splash park adds a modest session fee, still far below what a paid South Jersey attraction can cost for a family.

A county park built for a full day

Along the Cohansey River, the park includes an outdoor amphitheater at Sunset Lake and a swimming beach, guided nature trails, walking and wooded trails at Piney Point Woods, Mary Elmer Lake, playground areas, tennis courts and the Southern New Jersey All Sports Museum and Hall of Fame. The layout also gives older kids and adults room to spread out, with a fitness trail and outdoor exercise equipment woven into the park’s road network.

The city bought the watershed land in 1902-03 and preserved it as Bridgeton City Park. The Raceway still flows through the park and meanders through the zoo. The Swedish Village Living History Display is slated for renovations and upgrades.

Cohanzick Zoo keeps the cost down

Cohanzick Zoo gives the park system its strongest family draw. The zoo began in 1934, when Bridgeton had a small herd of deer to exhibit, and it still calls itself New Jersey’s first zoo. Its name comes from the Lenape people who lived in the Bridgeton area along the Cohansey River, and the zoo was renamed Cohanzick Zoo in 1972.

The zoo is free, open seven days a week, and in spring and summer it runs 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with fall and winter hours of 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The city lists more than 100 animals across 47 species and 25 exhibits, including Bengal tigers, white-handed gibbons, mountain lions, fennec foxes, fennec foxes, sandhill cranes, leopards, red river hogs, wallabies, Vietnamese pot-bellied pigs, African crested porcupines and ring-tailed lemurs. Free parking sits next to the entrance, the zoo is wheelchair and stroller accessible, and outside food and drink are allowed.

Its calendar includes recurring public programming such as Community Fun Day, Boo at the Zoo, Zoo Camp and the Out-to-Lunch Mad Scientist show, and it offers programs for all ages throughout the year. Support runs through memberships and animal adoptions, which start at $25, helping keep the attraction free for everyone else.

The splash park is the paid add-on, but still a bargain

Mayor Albert Kelly cut the ribbon on June 1, 2013, opening the zero-depth venue. It is a 7,500-square-foot space with 28 fixtures, including buckets, fountains, water wheels and cannons. It also includes a washroom, concession stand, outdoor shower, two pavilions, benches, lighting and sitting areas, so parents can stay on site while younger children cool off.

The splash park opens on weekends only until school lets out, then operates seven days a week, weather permitting, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. through Labor Day. Water shoes are required. City fee documents list splash park session fees at $6 per person, with each session running two hours.

A family of four pays $24 for one splash park session, while four Diggerland day tickets at the lowest posted price total $187.96 before food or other extras.

How to use the park system without spending much

The park system works best when you treat it as a layered outing. Start with the free pieces, walking trails, picnic areas, the zoo and the wooded paths around Piney Point Woods and Mary Elmer Lake, then decide whether the splash park fits the day’s budget. Because the zoo allows outside food and has picnic areas before the entrance, families can pack lunch instead of relying on concessions, and the mix of play fields, courts and trails gives enough variety for toddlers, school-age kids and adults in one stop.

Bridgeton has moved ahead with funding work tied to the Green Acres Program for zoo and park facilities, and it has also advanced Sunset Lake Amphitheater improvements through the bidding process.