One of the key proponents of improvements to Salter Grove and the efforts of FoSG is Warwick Representative Joseph McNamara, who for safety and access concerns ” is pressing to find the funds to repair a foot bridge that has been impassable since Super Storm Sandy.”

The bridge in question once spanned a gap in the eastern end of the causeway that leads from the parking area of the park to a rock breakwater that runs along upper Narragansett Bay/Providence River and connects Rock Island at the south with Marsh Island to the north.

Constructed in the late ’60s/early ’70s, after damage from decades of storms and especially Superstorm Sandy all that remains of the bridge today is a rusted frame that sits at an angle atop rocks.

At low tide the gap can be crossed by carefully threading a path down and around rocks; during high tide when water from the northern end of the cove is flowing through to the south,  the span cannot be crossed safely.

As it is, visitors must scramble over slippery rocks when they are exposed or wade through the water when the rising tide covers them. McNamara can imagine a situation in which a family with children is trapped by the rising tide on the breakwater, or worse, loses their balance and falls into the water.
— Warwick Beacon

Another gap in the causeway is at the western end, closer to the parking area and shoreline. During high water this is also covered over, to a smaller extent but still limiting access to the Bay and creating a safety concern. Once also spanned by a bridge, the western gap exhibits considerable erosion and now only has two PVC culvert pipes (broken in several places), presumably to assist in water flow.

Read the full report by Warwick Beacon reporter John Howell.