Hike at Seven Bridges

The Story

Seven Bridges Trail is rooted in the early 1900s, when Frederick C. Wulff — a German horticulturist hired by Milwaukee County in 1914 and famously harassed for his heritage during WWI — laid the groundwork for the ravine paths that became this beloved trail. The bridges, stone stairways, and Lannon-stone walkways were expanded and formalized in the 1930s by over 200 WPA and CCC workers, giving the trail its signature fairy-tale character. The stone archway at the entrance is inscribed with the words 'Enter this wild wood and view the haunts of nature' — a phrase that local teenagers have long misread as a paranormal warning, but really just means 'the place nature inhabits.'