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Mayor Michael Bloomberg and dozens of community activists were on hand this morning in Upper Manhattan to cut a green ribbon on a bike and pedestrian path in Highbridge Park.

The three-quarter mile paved route leads to the High Bridge, a former aqueduct over the Harlem River. Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe says the bike path is the first step to restoring and reopening that bridge, so pedestrians may cross into the Bronx.

BENEPE: Opening up this path, which used to be this little goat path, you needed a machete to get through to the bridge. It was kind of like an Indiana Jones kind of thing. The beautiful path now gives you full access to it. You can roller blade, you can bike. You can't have a great park unless people have access and feel safe.

REPORTER: Benepe says the new path cost more than $4 million, largely because of the engineering challenges of working on the side of a cliff. Restoring the bridge itself will cost $60 million and take four years to complete.