Eighteen years after the burned bridge cut off access, Pleasure Beach has been reopened. I didn’t manage to go out there via the water taxis that ran during the summer but a Veterans Day expedition confirmed that the pavilion has been renovated, the boardwalk repaired, and amenities such as picnic tables and trash cans provided.

I confess I’ve expressed some cynicism on the subject but I suppose nearly two decades is still a short wait to the people who run the DMV. Though everything was locked up for the season, the lights were on and we even met a park ranger — the first time I’ve ever encountered someone out there. “It’s a long walk from Stratford,” he said. Yes, but still easier than loading two kids and a dog on a paddleboard.

The beach is pristine, the sand much softer and cleaner than Fairfield’s. There’s talk of building ball fields and visitors are free to bring their bikes over and ride the old cracked roads. It’s so nice you can almost forget you’re in Bridgeport.

A consultant group has revealed a plan for the future of Pleasure Beach:

The plan calls for the construction of food kiosks, public restrooms, sporting fields, a playground, adult fitness equipment, pavilions, walking paths and educational programming on the city-owned property that once was the site of an amusement park.

“You don’t have to do much to make Pleasure Beach a place people will want to go,” said Sorge, a principal of the Hamden-based company hired by the city to map out a plan for the peninsula’s revival.

But, of course, the city must make it accessible. Officials have pledged to reopen the summertime oasis to the public by the end of 2012.

This is Bridgeport so I’ll believe it when I see it.

To be fair, the Finch administration has made more steps toward reopening access than anybody since the bridge burned in 1996. This summer the city replaced the decrepit bridge footing on the mainland side with a sparkly fishing and recreational pier, seen above. Only took them a decade and a half!

The article also says the permitting has been completed to install a floating dock at the base of the pier from which the water taxi will operate. The pier features a cordoned queue on its right-hand side; presumably this will be the entry and exit to a gangway and the floating dock below.

I have a short article on Pleasure Beach, accompanied by two of my photos, in this month’s Connecticut Magazine.

In early July I paddled out to Pleasure Beach to take the photographs. It was my first approach by water, and as such, my first up-close experience with the peninsula’s western shore. There was the usual trash — bottles, plastic bags, wrappers, unmatched flip-flops — but I was astounded by the large items thrown onto the beach. Fifty-five-gallon drums. Traffic beacons. Long lengths of containment booms. Tires — not car tires, but the kind from wheel loaders or other construction vehicles that are as tall as I am. Many of these have been half-buried by the tide, rising out of the sand like sphinx heads and temple columns in a David Roberts painting.

The western end of Pleasure Beach fronts Bridgeport Harbor, so it’s reasonable to assume this detritus originates from the barges and tankers trafficking through the area. Pleasure Beach, depending on how you look at it, is either a desert island pockmarked by the relics of civilization or a desolate landfill.