A M E N !
I was on the bridge yesterday and I originally shared your concerns. However it is much wider than you might expect from a single track bridge. In addition there are very secure railings and I didn’t feel anything but WOW!
The Poughkeepsie bridge was built as a double-track line and, indeed, could carry two of the New Haven’s heaviest freight trains at the same time, in different directions, of course.
It was built a a Double Track Bridge. To center the load and to prevent more than one of the heavy New Haven 2-10-2 Santa Fe types getting on the bridge at the same time, it was changed to a “gauntlet track” setup with maintenance walkways on both sides of the track.
I and my wife were on it late yesterday afternoon - Mon., Nov. 2nd. Concur with the post above. It’s definitely ‘a one-of-a-kind’ attraction - magnificent views - you’re at about the tops of the surounding hills - kind of like being on a Ferris Wheel without the admission price, the wait, or the ‘tippy’ sensation. My wife didn’t even think about the ‘fear of heights’ thing - and she’s the type, believe me - until we were well on our way home.
An amazing number of people - it seems to be very popular. I’ll try to post and link some photos later today. A couple of quick observations:
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Finding the trailhead/ parking lot at the eastern end was pretty tough. No signs in the area, and the map in the brochure doesn’t provide useful guidance.
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Parking was tough to find. Even at 3:20 PM on a Monday afternoon the eastern parking lot - which has over 100 spaces - was full, and many people looked to be using on-street parking as directed instead. We didn’t get a good look at all the parking lots at the western end, but the one right at the trail end was only about 12 spaces, and half of those were reserved for Handicapped. We couldn’t tell if there was another parking lot beyond that, or if the cars we saw were just parking along the roadside.<
It’ll have to be on my list of places to go.
Ironically, I was down in your area on Saturday, Paul - taking in Susquehanna 142 and the related Halloween operation.
Well, let’s see how this works - here’s the link for 5 photos from the bridge’s Walkway yesterday - you’ll be able to figure out what they show easily enough:
- On the east end are rusted remnants of the New Haven’s signals, if you know where to look - it’s not hard. A signal for westbound trains is in the trees along the northern edge, complete with target and part of the ladder - the vertical part is gone. Leading towards it are parts of the pipe-lever throwing/ interlocking system - a couple of the rollers, and at least 1 of the expansion/ adjustment cranks. On the south side is a mast and the lamp enclosure box for a signal. But none of these are identified or restored in any way.
It’s definitely ‘a one-of-a-kind’ attraction - magnificent views - you’re at about the tops of the surounding hills - kind of like being on a Ferris Wheel without the admission price, the wait, or the ‘tippy’ sensation. My wife didn’t even think about the ‘fear of heights’ thing - and she’s the type, believe me - until we were well on our way home.
I lived in Poughkeepsie from 1979 to 1995 and have a few things about the bridge. My ex-wife’s father rode over the bridge on a troop train during the Second World War and he said you could really feel it sway to the point where it was scary. He was the fire chief for the Town of Poughkeepsie and was called in on the fire in 1974. The fire started right after a PC train passed over it and from the time of the forming of PC in 1971, the bridge was hardly used and the PC didn’t want any part of the NH. Deliberately set? A lot of people thought so.
I recall reading that the bridge was assessed after the fire and it was found that the metal structure was severely affected by the fire with warped beams, loss of temper and so forth and would not be usable for trains. There was talk of dynamiting the bridge but that idea was rejected as it would disturb all the PCBs that are in the layers of mud on the bottom of the river. The PCBs came from a G.E. plant in Schenectady.
Debris from the bridge would occasionally fall onto the streets below so the remaining ties and rails were removed in the eighties from the east end where it was over land. The parts above the river were left in place, but the fire was strictly at the east end.
Conrail sold the bridge to a man for one dollar. The local power authority paid the man around $20,000.00 for the use of the bridge to carry their lines over the Hudson. The county tried to get ahold of him, all they had was a phone number of a taxi stand in Scranton. They never did learn who he was. That’s what I remember, anyway.
There was talk of building a new road on the roadbed of the line on the east side, but nothing came of it. It became an issue during an election for county executive; there was some speculation about building a light rail line on it, but nothing came of that either. The rails were taken out from t