![\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/wounder-warrior-2.png\")
<\/p>\nA group of U.S. soldiers rode their bikes into Philadelphia on Thursday as part of a 1,000-mile journey up the East Coast organized by the Wounded Warrior Project.<\/p>\n
The ride, which is in commemoration of America’s 250th anniversary, began in Jacksonville, Florida, on May 14. The journey is being completed in four groups.<\/p>\n
The riders are expected to finish Friday, May 29, at Ground Zero in New York City, where the World Trade Center towers were attacked on Sept. 11, 2001.<\/p>\n
Among the riders is Zach Tidwell, a Marine veteran who is blind following a suicide attempt while going through some personal struggles after deployment. <\/p>\n
Tidwell rides alongside his guide, Eric.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe last couple days, it\u2019s been wet,\u201d Tidwell said. \u201cIt\u2019s looking like it will be nicer today. This is totally out of my wheelhouse. It\u2019s awesome to try something new.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many of the riders are living with physical impairments, but continue the demanding ride as a reflection of the same commitment they showed while serving in the military.<\/p>\n
Tidwell said ending the ride at Ground Zero carries special meaning.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing with that group that is partially responsible for the country being here and heading all the way to Ground Zero, which encouraged a lot of people to go into the military in the first place, it\u2019s so powerful,\u201d Tidwell said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
During their stop in Philadelphia, the cyclists visited several iconic landmarks, including the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.<\/p>\n
For Tidwell, the ride represents more than just a physical challenge.<\/p>\n
\u201cLife has ended up more meaningful on the other side of this and on so many deeper levels than you would ever expect,\u201d Tidwell said. \u201cIt\u2019s really been a beautiful thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
This story was originally reported for broadcast by NBC Philadelphia. AI tools helped convert the story to a digital article, and an NBC Philadelphia journalist edited the article for publication.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A group of U.S. soldiers rode their bikes into Philadelphia on Thursday as part of a 1,000-mile journey…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":204821,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[4424,69,71,70,2349],"class_list":["post-204820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-military","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-veterans"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}