Poughkeepsie Bridge
Encyclopedia
The Poughkeepsie Bridge (sometimes known as the Poughkeepsie Railroad Bridge, the Poughkeepsie-Highland Railroad Bridge, the High Bridge, or, since October 3, 2009, the Walkway Over the Hudson State Historic Park) is a steel
cantilever bridge
spanning the Hudson River
between Poughkeepsie, New York
on the east bank and Highland, New York
on the west bank. Built as a double track
railroad bridge, it was completed on January 1, 1889, and went out of service on May 8, 1974. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
in 1979, updated in 2008. It was opened to the public on October 3, 2009, as a pedestrian and cyclist bridge and New York State Park.
. On October 27, 1855, an engineer proposed that a railroad bridge be built across the Hudson River at Poughkeepsie, via a letter published in the Poughkeepsie Eagle
newspaper. The proposal seemed so absurd that the Eagle ridiculed it, and it was effectively forgotten until 1868. Over the years, many plans had been made for a fixed span across the Hudson River
south of Albany to replace numerous car float
and ferry operations. One of the most persistent was originally chartered in 1868 as the Hudson Highland Suspension Bridge Company, and would have crossed from Anthony's Nose
to Fort Clinton
, now roughly the site of the Bear Mountain Bridge
. This proposed bridge was never built.
The Poughkeepsie Bridge Company was chartered in June 1871 to build the bridge, and J. Edgar Thomson of the Pennsylvania Railroad
was persuaded to support the effort. Contracts were let to a firm called the American Bridge Company (not the company of the same name
founded later), but the Panic of 1873
intervened and the scheme collapsed.
In 1886, the Manhattan Bridge Building Company was organized to finance the construction. Among the prominent backers was Henry Clay Frick
, the coal tycoon and associate of Andrew Carnegie
. The Union Bridge Company
of Athens, Pennsylvania
, which had completed the Michigan Central cantilever bridge at Niagara (see Niagara Cantilever Bridge
), was subcontracted to build the Poughkeepsie Bridge. Dawson, Symmes and Usher were the foundation engineers, while John F. O'Rourke, P. P. Dickinson and Arthur B. Paine were the structural engineers. The bridge was designed by Charles Macdonald and Arthur B. Paine. As is typical for cantilever bridges, construction was carried out by constructing cribwork, masonry piers, towers, fixed truss sections on falsework, and finally cantilever sections, with the final cantilever interconnection (suspended) spans floated out or raised with falsework
.
The first (test) train crossed the bridge on December 29, 1888.
The bridge was considered an engineering marvel of the day and has seven main spans. The total length is 6,767 feet (2082.15 meters), including approaches, and the deck is 212 feet (65.23 meters) above water. It is a multispan cantilever truss bridge, having two river-crossing cantilever spans of 548 feet each (168.62 meters), one center span of 546 feet (168 meters), two anchor (connecting) spans of 525 feet each (161.53 meters), two shore spans of 201 feet each (61.85 meters), a 2,640-foot (812.31 meters) approach viaduct on the eastern bank and a 1,033-foot (317.85 meters) approach viaduct on the western bank. All seven spans were built of newly available Bessemer Process "mild" (between 0.16% and 0.29% carbon) steel, while the two approach viaducts were built of iron. It formed part of the most direct rail route between the industrial northeastern states and the midwestern and western states.
crossing south of Albany until the construction of the Bear Mountain (road) Bridge
in 1924, and was advertised as a way to avoid New York City
car floats and railroad passenger ferries. Due to the changes in ownership of railroads, the bridge was nominally owned by many different lines, including Central New England Railway
(CNE), New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad
(NH), Penn Central (PC) and Conrail, among others.
The bridge was strengthened in 1912 by Ralph Modjeski
, of famed bridge civil engineering firm Modjeski and Masters, by adding a third line of trusses down the middle and by adding a central girder and additional interleaved columns, to safely handle the increased weight of freight trains crossing it, as can be seen in this illustration from the Poughkeepsie Journal
story archive. In 1917-18, the double tracks on the bridge were converted to gantlet track
operation to center the weight of new, far-heavier New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad 2-10-2 steam locomotives. The gantlet tracks were replaced by a centered single track in 1959.
During World War II
, the bridge was a vital link for war freight traffic, and was guarded by U.S. Army soldiers 24 hours a day.
The bridge's importance was severely reduced in 1960 when the Erie Lackawanna system was created; the larger railroad consolidated most freight routes on its own trackage. When the Penn Central System was created by merger in 1968, it also preferred a different route, using its Selkirk Yard
and West Shore Line
to New Jersey and its Boston & Albany line to New England. Factors such as the decrease in manufacturing in the Northeast, the construction of the Interstate Highway System
, and increased maintenance costs may also have made the bridge increasingly uneconomical in the 1960s and 1970s. With the 1970 bankruptcy of Penn Central, the Lehigh & Hudson River Railway, which fed vital through traffic to the "Maybrook Line" at Maybrook Yard, New York, similarly entered receivership. On May 8, 1974, the Poughkeepsie Bridge suffered a wooden-tie fire that damaged about 700 feet of the bridge decking and underlying girders: reported shortly after an eastbound freight train had crossed, with the fire confined to the eastern viaduct over the City of Poughkeepsie. Penn Central had totally neglected the bridge's fire-protection system, which had no water on the day of the fire, while firing watchmen who had previously kept watch for such fires.
In 1976, after two years of abandonment, Senator Abraham Ribicoff (D.-Conn.) forced Conrail to acquire the former NH Railroad Maybrook Line from Maybrook Yard to New Haven, Connecticut
including the Poughkeepsie Bridge, by including it in the United States Railway Association
"Final System Plan" for reorganization of the seven bankrupt Northeastern railroads into Conrail. However, Conrail then refused to spend anything to repair the 1974 fire damage. Seven years then passed, with one important event that was financially negative to Conrail: pieces of the bridge's eastern approach viaduct over the City of Poughkeepsie, where the 1974 fire damage had occurred, had been falling onto US Route 9 from time to time and damaging passing vehicles. In response, the city successfully sued Conrail and forced it to spend $300,000 of its own money in 1981 to remove the entire decking over the superstructure (ties, rails, spikes and tie plates, iron railings and fences, and so forth) from the east bank of the Hudson to the beginning of the eastern approach viaduct. Subsequent to this event, Conrail sought to dispose of the unused bridge. Conrail also removed the single track and passing sidings of its Maybrook Line, between Hopewell Junction
and Maybrook, in 1983.
In late 1983, Conrail had already quietly solicited competitive bids for imminent bridge demolition when a railroad bridge enthusiast and lawyer, Donald L. Pevsner, enquired about buying it for responsible adaptive re-use. In response, Conrail, realizing that it could save between $7–25 million by selling the bridge for a nominal sum rather than paying for its demolition, terminated its call for demolition bids and instead gave Pevsner three successive three-month options to find a responsible new private or public owner. These options began on February 1, 1984 and ended on November 1, 1984. Though the original option agreement called for a financially responsible new owner, that could and would pay for necessary liability insurance and maintenance on the bridge into the long-term future, then-Conrail Chairman and CEO L. Stanley Crane did an abrupt about-face in the late summer of 1984. He told his Senior Vice President-Real Estate, Lawrence J. Huff, to advise Pevsner that "the bridge would be sold to the first warm body on November 2, 1984, should Pevsner not exercise his third and last option by November 1, 1984," and that "another buyer was waiting in the wings to do just that." When Pevsner asked Huff whether he was expected to take title in a shell corporation, with zero assets but the bridge and no funds to pay for necessary insurance and maintenance, the answer was, "If necessary. We just want to get it off the books." Huff then personally apologized to Pevsner for maintaining such an irresponsible corporate posture at the express direction of his Chairman and CEO: particularly as Conrail was completely owned by the Federal government at the time. (Crane retired from Conrail in late 1988, and died in Florida on July 15, 2003 at age 87.) Pevsner refused to exercise his option under such conditions, and allowed it to lapse on November 1, 1984.
On November 2, 1984, after 10½ years of abandonment and as threatened to Pevsner, Conrail sold the bridge for $1 to a convicted-felon bank swindler named Gordon Schreiber Miller, of St. Davids, Pennsylvania, to "get it off the books." For the next fourteen years, Miller and his successor, Vito Moreno, spent little or nothing on maintenance or insurance, while attempting to drastically increase the $25,000 annual rent paid by Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corporation for its three 115,000-volt and three 69,000-volt power lines across the Hudson, attached to the south side of the bridge since 1949. In response, Central Hudson de-energized those power lines and relocated them under the river in 1985, thereby ending Miller's only source of bridge income. During this long period, critical bridge navigation lights were mostly inoperative, resulting in large U.S. Coast Guard fines against the Miller corporation that all went unpaid. Further, all of the 2,200-pound brackets that connected Central Hudson's de-energized high-tension power lines to the south side of the bridge continued to deteriorate by rusting. Though Central Hudson admitted that it normally had a legal duty to remove its abandoned power lines, it refused to remove its abandoned bridge-affixed lines, instead relying on a claim that it no longer owned the lines at issue pursuant to prior litigation with Conrail that was decided on September 26, 1984, and won a similar legal opinion before the New York State Public Service Commission in 1995, which was left to stand on April 1, 1999 when The Poughkeepsie-Highland Railroad Bridge Company, Inc., as the successor owner to Gordon Schreiber Miller and Vito Moreno, withdrew its 1998 complaint against Central Hudson on January 27,
1999.
and Ulster County
taxes on the bridge by prior owners Gordon Schreiber Miller and his successor, Vito Moreno, Moreno deeded the bridge to a nonprofit volunteer organization called Walkway Over the Hudson, which took title through its nonprofit New York corporation, The Poughkeepsie-Highland Railroad Bridge Company, Inc., hoping to turn it into a pedestrian and cyclist walkway. The deed was recorded in both Counties on June 5, 1998. The former Central Hudson power lines were finally removed in 2009, as part of Walkway construction. On December 21, 2010, the Walkway corporation conveyed the entire structure (6,767 feet long) to the New York State Bridge Authority. For the first time since November 2, 1984, liability insurance again exists on the entire structure, together with the "deep pockets" required for proper maintenance. On September 5, 2009, conversion work and repairs to the structural steel and the laying of concrete slabs for the walkway were completed. The volunteer head of "Walkway", as it is known locally, said in 2008, "We think people will come from all over. It's the equivalent of the Eiffel Tower
, or the Golden Gate Bridge
." The project initially received support from local residents, city and state officials totaling about $1,000,000, plus forgiveness of $550,000 in taxes inherited from the previous owners. Then, Walkway solicited funding from both the State and Federal governments, for historic preservation, and from private philanthropic organizations. Funding sources as of October 23, 2009 include:
The total budget as of October, 2009 totals about $38.8 million. The Walkway Group has raised a total of $30.7 million as of October 23, 2009, and continues its efforts to raise the approximately $8.1 million shortfall from a number of government and philanthropic sources. The deficit was financed by lines of credit from Ulster Savings Bank ($4 million) and M&T Bank (the balance) that were drawn-upon to complete the project. These lines of credit were scheduled to be converted into five-year loans at the end of 2009. Their present status (July 22, 2010) and outstanding balances owed have not been disclosed by the Walkway organization nor by these two banks.
The project was separated into four phases, with the first two completed as of October, 2009:
The piers were inspected in 2008 and given a clean bill of health. Similarly, Bergmann Associates, P.C. (of Rochester and Albany, NY), project engineers and managers, has stated in writing that the wind loads were carefully examined for the replacement, solid-concrete Walkway decking, and that this item is not a safety problem. The decking work was completed on September 5, 2009. Walkway opened the bridge to the public on October 3, 2009, in time for the quadricentennial celebration of Henry Hudson
sailing up the Hudson River
, and that day handed it over to the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation
for management.
The bridge became a National Recreation Trail
in 2009.
, and was attended by Governor David Paterson
, Senator Chuck Schumer, Congressman Maurice Hinchey
, President of nearby Vassar College
Catharine Bond Hill
, and other officials. Paterson said, "This bridge is now the longest footbridge
in the world."
Reports by the end of 2009 were that the number of visitors to the walkway were much greater than expected, reaching approximately 415,000 as of December 29. Projections prior to the opening were of 267,000 visits per year.
On May 15, 2010, there was a lighting ceremony as LED-based lights were turned on for the first time, designed to allow nighttime use of the bridge, though due to funding limitations this is expected to only be used on special occasions. 3000 people paid $5 apiece to attend the sold-out ceremony. Crowd management presented a problem, prompting criticism and an apology from the Walkway organization, but ultimately no incident or injury.
On February 20, 2011, Don Kampfer, a Korean War
veteran, died of a heart attack he suffered while participating in a monthly ceremony to retire and replace the American flag
on the Walkway. Kampfer is the second person to die on the Walkway, the other also being of a heart attack while walking over the bridge.
On July 27, 2011, an Ulster County man in his late 20s is reported to have jumped off the bridge in the evening after it closed. His entry to the bridge set off an alarm bringing the police who found his belongings (and later a suicide note at his home), but he was not there; his body was found two days later.
Restrooms are currently located at the ends of the Walkway, although at the time of a 2008 engineering survey of the bridge, there was "not a johnny on the spot". Pets are permitted, but owners should bring equipment to clean up. Bicycles are permitted, and the Walkway is flat and relatively wheelchair friendly.
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Steel
Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...
cantilever bridge
Cantilever bridge
A cantilever bridge is a bridge built using cantilevers, structures that project horizontally into space, supported on only one end. For small footbridges, the cantilevers may be simple beams; however, large cantilever bridges designed to handle road or rail traffic use trusses built from...
spanning the Hudson River
Hudson River
The Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...
between Poughkeepsie, New York
Poughkeepsie (city), New York
Poughkeepsie is a city in the state of New York, United States, which serves as the county seat of Dutchess County. Poughkeepsie is located in the Hudson River Valley midway between New York City and Albany...
on the east bank and Highland, New York
Highland, Ulster County, New York
Highland is a hamlet in Ulster County, New York, United States. The population was 5,060 at the 2000 census.Highland is a community in the Town of Lloyd, on U.S. Route 9W. Routes 44 and 55 run through it as well...
on the west bank. Built as a double track
Double track
A double track railway usually involves running one track in each direction, compared to a single track railway where trains in both directions share the same track.- Overview :...
railroad bridge, it was completed on January 1, 1889, and went out of service on May 8, 1974. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
in 1979, updated in 2008. It was opened to the public on October 3, 2009, as a pedestrian and cyclist bridge and New York State Park.
Construction
Planning for a Hudson crossing bridge began before the Civil WarAmerican Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
. On October 27, 1855, an engineer proposed that a railroad bridge be built across the Hudson River at Poughkeepsie, via a letter published in the Poughkeepsie Eagle
Poughkeepsie Journal
The Poughkeepsie Journal is a newspaper based in Poughkeepsie, New York owned by the Gannett Company, who bought the paper in 1977. Founded in 1785 , the Journal is the oldest paper in New York state, and is the third-oldest in the nation...
newspaper. The proposal seemed so absurd that the Eagle ridiculed it, and it was effectively forgotten until 1868. Over the years, many plans had been made for a fixed span across the Hudson River
Hudson River
The Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...
south of Albany to replace numerous car float
Car float
A railroad car float or rail barge is an unpowered barge with rail tracks mounted on its deck. It is used to move railroad cars across water obstacles, or to locations they could not otherwise go, and is pushed by a towboat or towed by a tugboat...
and ferry operations. One of the most persistent was originally chartered in 1868 as the Hudson Highland Suspension Bridge Company, and would have crossed from Anthony's Nose
Anthony's Nose (Westchester)
Anthony's Nose is a peak along the Hudson River at the north end of Westchester County, New York.- Topography :Anthony's Nose, together with Dunderberg Mountain, comprises the South Gate of the Hudson Highlands...
to Fort Clinton
Fort Clinton
Fort Clinton was an American Revolutionary War fortification in present-day Highlands, Orange County, New York. It was a companion to Fort Montgomery. Its garrison of 300 was smaller than that of Fort Montgomery, but Fort Clinton was built on a ridge at the mouth of the Popolopen Gorge, overlooking...
, now roughly the site of the Bear Mountain Bridge
Bear Mountain Bridge
The Bear Mountain Bridge is a toll suspension bridge in New York State, carrying U.S. Highways 202 and 6 across the Hudson River between Rockland and Westchester counties...
. This proposed bridge was never built.
The Poughkeepsie Bridge Company was chartered in June 1871 to build the bridge, and J. Edgar Thomson of the Pennsylvania Railroad
Pennsylvania Railroad
The Pennsylvania Railroad was an American Class I railroad, founded in 1846. Commonly referred to as the "Pennsy", the PRR was headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania....
was persuaded to support the effort. Contracts were let to a firm called the American Bridge Company (not the company of the same name
American Bridge Company
The American Bridge Company is a privately held civil engineering firm specializing in the construction and renovation of bridges and other large civil engineering projects, founded in 1900, and headquartered in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh.-Products and industry positioning:The...
founded later), but the Panic of 1873
Panic of 1873
The Panic of 1873 triggered a severe international economic depression in both Europe and the United States that lasted until 1879, and even longer in some countries. The depression was known as the Great Depression until the 1930s, but is now known as the Long Depression...
intervened and the scheme collapsed.
In 1886, the Manhattan Bridge Building Company was organized to finance the construction. Among the prominent backers was Henry Clay Frick
Henry Clay Frick
Henry Clay Frick was an American industrialist, financier, and art patron. He founded the H. C. Frick & Company coke manufacturing company, was chairman of the Carnegie Steel Company, and played a major role in the formation of the giant U.S. Steel steel manufacturing concern...
, the coal tycoon and associate of Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie was a Scottish-American industrialist, businessman, and entrepreneur who led the enormous expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century...
. The Union Bridge Company
Union Bridge Company
The Union Bridge Company was a bridge fabricator and contractor with works in Buffalo, New York, and Athens, Pennsylvania. The Union Bridge company was formed in 1884 as a merger of several other bridge-building firms. Partners included George S. Field of Buffalo, Edumund Hayes of Buffalo,...
of Athens, Pennsylvania
Athens, Pennsylvania
Athens is a borough in Bradford County, Pennsylvania, two miles south of the N. Y. State line on the Susquehanna and Chemung rivers. Population in 1900, 3,749; and in 1910, 3,796. The population was 3,415 at the 2000 census...
, which had completed the Michigan Central cantilever bridge at Niagara (see Niagara Cantilever Bridge
Niagara Cantilever Bridge
The Niagara Cantilever Bridge or Michigan Central Railway Cantilever Bridge was a cantilever bridge across the Niagara Gorge. An international railway-only bridge between Canada and the United States, it connected Niagara Falls, New York, and Niagara Falls, Ontario, located just south of the...
), was subcontracted to build the Poughkeepsie Bridge. Dawson, Symmes and Usher were the foundation engineers, while John F. O'Rourke, P. P. Dickinson and Arthur B. Paine were the structural engineers. The bridge was designed by Charles Macdonald and Arthur B. Paine. As is typical for cantilever bridges, construction was carried out by constructing cribwork, masonry piers, towers, fixed truss sections on falsework, and finally cantilever sections, with the final cantilever interconnection (suspended) spans floated out or raised with falsework
Falsework
Falsework consists of temporary structures used in construction to support spanning or arched structures in order to hold the component in place until its construction is sufficiently advanced to support itself...
.
The first (test) train crossed the bridge on December 29, 1888.
The bridge was considered an engineering marvel of the day and has seven main spans. The total length is 6,767 feet (2082.15 meters), including approaches, and the deck is 212 feet (65.23 meters) above water. It is a multispan cantilever truss bridge, having two river-crossing cantilever spans of 548 feet each (168.62 meters), one center span of 546 feet (168 meters), two anchor (connecting) spans of 525 feet each (161.53 meters), two shore spans of 201 feet each (61.85 meters), a 2,640-foot (812.31 meters) approach viaduct on the eastern bank and a 1,033-foot (317.85 meters) approach viaduct on the western bank. All seven spans were built of newly available Bessemer Process "mild" (between 0.16% and 0.29% carbon) steel, while the two approach viaducts were built of iron. It formed part of the most direct rail route between the industrial northeastern states and the midwestern and western states.
Operation
The bridge remained as the only Hudson RiverHudson River
The Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...
crossing south of Albany until the construction of the Bear Mountain (road) Bridge
Bear Mountain Bridge
The Bear Mountain Bridge is a toll suspension bridge in New York State, carrying U.S. Highways 202 and 6 across the Hudson River between Rockland and Westchester counties...
in 1924, and was advertised as a way to avoid New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
car floats and railroad passenger ferries. Due to the changes in ownership of railroads, the bridge was nominally owned by many different lines, including Central New England Railway
Central New England Railway
The Central New England Railway was a railroad from Hartford, Connecticut and Springfield, Massachusetts west across northern Connecticut and across the Hudson River on the Poughkeepsie Bridge to Maybrook, New York...
(CNE), New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad
New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad
The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad , was a railroad that operated in the northeast United States from 1872 to 1968 which served the states of Connecticut, New York, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts...
(NH), Penn Central (PC) and Conrail, among others.
The bridge was strengthened in 1912 by Ralph Modjeski
Ralph Modjeski
Ralph Modjeski was a Polish-born American civil engineer who achieved prominence as a pre-eminent bridge designer in the United States.-Life:...
, of famed bridge civil engineering firm Modjeski and Masters, by adding a third line of trusses down the middle and by adding a central girder and additional interleaved columns, to safely handle the increased weight of freight trains crossing it, as can be seen in this illustration from the Poughkeepsie Journal
Poughkeepsie Journal
The Poughkeepsie Journal is a newspaper based in Poughkeepsie, New York owned by the Gannett Company, who bought the paper in 1977. Founded in 1785 , the Journal is the oldest paper in New York state, and is the third-oldest in the nation...
story archive. In 1917-18, the double tracks on the bridge were converted to gantlet track
Gantlet track
Gauntlet track or interlaced track is an arrangement in which railway tracks run parallel on a single track bed and are interlaced such that only one pair of rails may be used at a time. Since this requires only slightly more width than a single track, all four rails can be carried on the same...
operation to center the weight of new, far-heavier New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad 2-10-2 steam locomotives. The gantlet tracks were replaced by a centered single track in 1959.
During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, the bridge was a vital link for war freight traffic, and was guarded by U.S. Army soldiers 24 hours a day.
Decline and closing
Selkirk Subdivision
The Selkirk Subdivision is a railroad line owned by CSX Transportation in the U.S. State of New York. The line runs from Selkirk northwest to Amsterdam along a former New York Central Railroad line. At its southeast end, at Selkirk Yard, the Selkirk Subdivision becomes the Castleton Subdivision...
and West Shore Line
West Shore Railroad
The West Shore Railroad was the final name of a railroad from Weehawken, New Jersey, across the Hudson River from New York City, north along the west shore of the river to Albany, New York and then west to Buffalo...
to New Jersey and its Boston & Albany line to New England. Factors such as the decrease in manufacturing in the Northeast, the construction of the Interstate Highway System
Interstate Highway System
The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, , is a network of limited-access roads including freeways, highways, and expressways forming part of the National Highway System of the United States of America...
, and increased maintenance costs may also have made the bridge increasingly uneconomical in the 1960s and 1970s. With the 1970 bankruptcy of Penn Central, the Lehigh & Hudson River Railway, which fed vital through traffic to the "Maybrook Line" at Maybrook Yard, New York, similarly entered receivership. On May 8, 1974, the Poughkeepsie Bridge suffered a wooden-tie fire that damaged about 700 feet of the bridge decking and underlying girders: reported shortly after an eastbound freight train had crossed, with the fire confined to the eastern viaduct over the City of Poughkeepsie. Penn Central had totally neglected the bridge's fire-protection system, which had no water on the day of the fire, while firing watchmen who had previously kept watch for such fires.
In 1976, after two years of abandonment, Senator Abraham Ribicoff (D.-Conn.) forced Conrail to acquire the former NH Railroad Maybrook Line from Maybrook Yard to New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is the second-largest city in Connecticut and the sixth-largest in New England. According to the 2010 Census, New Haven's population increased by 5.0% between 2000 and 2010, a rate higher than that of the State of Connecticut, and higher than that of the state's five largest cities, and...
including the Poughkeepsie Bridge, by including it in the United States Railway Association
United States Railway Association
The United States Railway Association was a government-owned corporation created by United States federal law that oversaw the creation of Conrail, a railroad corporation that would acquire and operate bankrupt and other failing freight railroads...
"Final System Plan" for reorganization of the seven bankrupt Northeastern railroads into Conrail. However, Conrail then refused to spend anything to repair the 1974 fire damage. Seven years then passed, with one important event that was financially negative to Conrail: pieces of the bridge's eastern approach viaduct over the City of Poughkeepsie, where the 1974 fire damage had occurred, had been falling onto US Route 9 from time to time and damaging passing vehicles. In response, the city successfully sued Conrail and forced it to spend $300,000 of its own money in 1981 to remove the entire decking over the superstructure (ties, rails, spikes and tie plates, iron railings and fences, and so forth) from the east bank of the Hudson to the beginning of the eastern approach viaduct. Subsequent to this event, Conrail sought to dispose of the unused bridge. Conrail also removed the single track and passing sidings of its Maybrook Line, between Hopewell Junction
Hopewell Junction, New York
Hopewell Junction is a hamlet in Dutchess County, New York, United States. The population was 2,610 at the 2000 census...
and Maybrook, in 1983.
In late 1983, Conrail had already quietly solicited competitive bids for imminent bridge demolition when a railroad bridge enthusiast and lawyer, Donald L. Pevsner, enquired about buying it for responsible adaptive re-use. In response, Conrail, realizing that it could save between $7–25 million by selling the bridge for a nominal sum rather than paying for its demolition, terminated its call for demolition bids and instead gave Pevsner three successive three-month options to find a responsible new private or public owner. These options began on February 1, 1984 and ended on November 1, 1984. Though the original option agreement called for a financially responsible new owner, that could and would pay for necessary liability insurance and maintenance on the bridge into the long-term future, then-Conrail Chairman and CEO L. Stanley Crane did an abrupt about-face in the late summer of 1984. He told his Senior Vice President-Real Estate, Lawrence J. Huff, to advise Pevsner that "the bridge would be sold to the first warm body on November 2, 1984, should Pevsner not exercise his third and last option by November 1, 1984," and that "another buyer was waiting in the wings to do just that." When Pevsner asked Huff whether he was expected to take title in a shell corporation, with zero assets but the bridge and no funds to pay for necessary insurance and maintenance, the answer was, "If necessary. We just want to get it off the books." Huff then personally apologized to Pevsner for maintaining such an irresponsible corporate posture at the express direction of his Chairman and CEO: particularly as Conrail was completely owned by the Federal government at the time. (Crane retired from Conrail in late 1988, and died in Florida on July 15, 2003 at age 87.) Pevsner refused to exercise his option under such conditions, and allowed it to lapse on November 1, 1984.
On November 2, 1984, after 10½ years of abandonment and as threatened to Pevsner, Conrail sold the bridge for $1 to a convicted-felon bank swindler named Gordon Schreiber Miller, of St. Davids, Pennsylvania, to "get it off the books." For the next fourteen years, Miller and his successor, Vito Moreno, spent little or nothing on maintenance or insurance, while attempting to drastically increase the $25,000 annual rent paid by Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corporation for its three 115,000-volt and three 69,000-volt power lines across the Hudson, attached to the south side of the bridge since 1949. In response, Central Hudson de-energized those power lines and relocated them under the river in 1985, thereby ending Miller's only source of bridge income. During this long period, critical bridge navigation lights were mostly inoperative, resulting in large U.S. Coast Guard fines against the Miller corporation that all went unpaid. Further, all of the 2,200-pound brackets that connected Central Hudson's de-energized high-tension power lines to the south side of the bridge continued to deteriorate by rusting. Though Central Hudson admitted that it normally had a legal duty to remove its abandoned power lines, it refused to remove its abandoned bridge-affixed lines, instead relying on a claim that it no longer owned the lines at issue pursuant to prior litigation with Conrail that was decided on September 26, 1984, and won a similar legal opinion before the New York State Public Service Commission in 1995, which was left to stand on April 1, 1999 when The Poughkeepsie-Highland Railroad Bridge Company, Inc., as the successor owner to Gordon Schreiber Miller and Vito Moreno, withdrew its 1998 complaint against Central Hudson on January 27,
1999.
Restoration
On June 4, 1998, following the long nonpayment of DutchessDutchess County, New York
Dutchess County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York, in the state's Mid-Hudson Region of the Hudson Valley. The 2010 census lists the population as 297,488...
and Ulster County
Ulster County, New York
Ulster County is a county located in the state of New York, USA. It sits in the state's Mid-Hudson Region of the Hudson Valley. As of the 2010 census, the population was 182,493. Recent population estimates completed by the United States Census Bureau for the 12-month period ending July 1 are at...
taxes on the bridge by prior owners Gordon Schreiber Miller and his successor, Vito Moreno, Moreno deeded the bridge to a nonprofit volunteer organization called Walkway Over the Hudson, which took title through its nonprofit New York corporation, The Poughkeepsie-Highland Railroad Bridge Company, Inc., hoping to turn it into a pedestrian and cyclist walkway. The deed was recorded in both Counties on June 5, 1998. The former Central Hudson power lines were finally removed in 2009, as part of Walkway construction. On December 21, 2010, the Walkway corporation conveyed the entire structure (6,767 feet long) to the New York State Bridge Authority. For the first time since November 2, 1984, liability insurance again exists on the entire structure, together with the "deep pockets" required for proper maintenance. On September 5, 2009, conversion work and repairs to the structural steel and the laying of concrete slabs for the walkway were completed. The volunteer head of "Walkway", as it is known locally, said in 2008, "We think people will come from all over. It's the equivalent of the Eiffel Tower
Eiffel Tower
The Eiffel Tower is a puddle iron lattice tower located on the Champ de Mars in Paris. Built in 1889, it has become both a global icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world...
, or the Golden Gate Bridge
Golden Gate Bridge
The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the opening of the San Francisco Bay into the Pacific Ocean. As part of both U.S. Route 101 and California State Route 1, the structure links the city of San Francisco, on the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula, to...
." The project initially received support from local residents, city and state officials totaling about $1,000,000, plus forgiveness of $550,000 in taxes inherited from the previous owners. Then, Walkway solicited funding from both the State and Federal governments, for historic preservation, and from private philanthropic organizations. Funding sources as of October 23, 2009 include:
- The Dyson Foundation, which has donated over $2 million.
- New York State funding, from various entities, totals about $22.5 million.
- Federal government funding, from various entities, totals about $3.5 million.
- Scenic Hudson, Inc., which has donated $1 million.
- The Jane W. Nuhn Charitable Trust has donated $500,000.
- The M&T Charitable Foundation has donated between $50,000 and $100,000.
- Amy P. Goldman and Sarah Arno have donated between $100,000 and $250,000.
The total budget as of October, 2009 totals about $38.8 million. The Walkway Group has raised a total of $30.7 million as of October 23, 2009, and continues its efforts to raise the approximately $8.1 million shortfall from a number of government and philanthropic sources. The deficit was financed by lines of credit from Ulster Savings Bank ($4 million) and M&T Bank (the balance) that were drawn-upon to complete the project. These lines of credit were scheduled to be converted into five-year loans at the end of 2009. Their present status (July 22, 2010) and outstanding balances owed have not been disclosed by the Walkway organization nor by these two banks.
The project was separated into four phases, with the first two completed as of October, 2009:
- Phase 1 – attain ownership of the bridge.
- Phase 2 – structural analysis of the bridge and creation of a comprehensive plan, including budget and timeline for completion. The group also has to find funding for the project and secure funding for the start of construction.
- Phase 3 – construct and open the first 1,800 feet (553.85 meters) of the walkway on the Ulster side. The Dutchess side will get an elevator and 900 feet (276.92 meters) of walkway. This phase was complete on October 3, 2009 (the grand-opening date), excepting a $2.4 million elevator installation in Poughkeepsie that is planned for completion in 2012.
- Phase 4 – construct and open the remaining 4,067 feet (1,251.38 meters) of the walkway and its resultant connections to the Hudson Valley Rail TrailHudson Valley Rail TrailThe Hudson Valley Rail Trail is a paved east–west rail trail in the town of Lloyd in Ulster County, New York, stretching from the Poughkeepsie Bridge through the hamlet of Highland. The trail was originally part of the Poughkeepsie Bridge Route, a rail corridor that crossed the Hudson River via...
in Highland and the Dutchess Rail TrailDutchess Rail TrailThe Dutchess Rail Trail is a rail trail that stretches from Poughkeepsie east and south to Hopewell Junction. It occupies the right-of-way of the former Central New England Railway's abandoned Maybrook Line....
in Poughkeepsie. The walkway was completed on September 5, 2009, and opened to the public on October 3, 2009. The Hudson Valley Rail Trail connection was finished in the autumn of 2010. The Dutchess Rail Trail connection remains to be completed.
The piers were inspected in 2008 and given a clean bill of health. Similarly, Bergmann Associates, P.C. (of Rochester and Albany, NY), project engineers and managers, has stated in writing that the wind loads were carefully examined for the replacement, solid-concrete Walkway decking, and that this item is not a safety problem. The decking work was completed on September 5, 2009. Walkway opened the bridge to the public on October 3, 2009, in time for the quadricentennial celebration of Henry Hudson
Henry Hudson
Henry Hudson was an English sea explorer and navigator in the early 17th century. Hudson made two attempts on behalf of English merchants to find a prospective Northeast Passage to Cathay via a route above the Arctic Circle...
sailing up the Hudson River
Hudson River
The Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...
, and that day handed it over to the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation
New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation
The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation operates :*168 state parks*35 state historic sites*76 developed beaches*53 water recreational facilities*27 golf courses*39 full service cottages*818 cabins...
for management.
The bridge became a National Recreation Trail
National Recreation Trail
National Recreation Trail is a designation given to existing trails that contribute to health, conservation, and recreation goals in the United States. Over 1,000 trails in all 50 U.S. states, available for public use and ranging from less than a mile to in length, have been designated as NRTs...
in 2009.
Walkway Over the Hudson State Historic Park
The opening ceremony of the Walkway Over the Hudson State Historic Park, on October 3, 2009, featured music by Pete SeegerPete Seeger
Peter "Pete" Seeger is an American folk singer and was an iconic figure in the mid-twentieth century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of The Weavers, most notably their recording of Lead...
, and was attended by Governor David Paterson
David Paterson
David Alexander Paterson is an American politician who served as the 55th Governor of New York, from 2008 to 2010. During his tenure he was the first governor of New York of African American heritage and also the second legally blind governor of any U.S. state after Bob C. Riley, who was Acting...
, Senator Chuck Schumer, Congressman Maurice Hinchey
Maurice Hinchey
Maurice Dunlea Hinchey , is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1993. He is a member of the Democratic Party...
, President of nearby Vassar College
Vassar College
Vassar College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college in the town of Poughkeepsie, New York, in the United States. The Vassar campus comprises over and more than 100 buildings, including four National Historic Landmarks, ranging in style from Collegiate Gothic to International,...
Catharine Bond Hill
Catharine Bond Hill
Catharine "Cappy" Bond Hill is the current president of Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, NY. She began in 2006, after former president Frances D. Fergusson retired. Before coming to Vassar, Hill was provost at Williams College.-Biography:...
, and other officials. Paterson said, "This bridge is now the longest footbridge
Footbridge
A footbridge or pedestrian bridge is a bridge designed for pedestrians and in some cases cyclists, animal traffic and horse riders, rather than vehicular traffic. Footbridges complement the landscape and can be used decoratively to visually link two distinct areas or to signal a transaction...
in the world."
Reports by the end of 2009 were that the number of visitors to the walkway were much greater than expected, reaching approximately 415,000 as of December 29. Projections prior to the opening were of 267,000 visits per year.
Events and incidents
The first footrace on the walkway occurred the day after the official opening on October 4, 2009. The 5k race started on the Highland side, crossed to the Poughkeepsie side and turned around at the parking lot and finished back in Highland. The race was won by James Boeding in a time of 16:26. The female winner was Kira DeCaprio in 20:12. There were 660 recorded finishers of the race.On May 15, 2010, there was a lighting ceremony as LED-based lights were turned on for the first time, designed to allow nighttime use of the bridge, though due to funding limitations this is expected to only be used on special occasions. 3000 people paid $5 apiece to attend the sold-out ceremony. Crowd management presented a problem, prompting criticism and an apology from the Walkway organization, but ultimately no incident or injury.
On February 20, 2011, Don Kampfer, a Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
veteran, died of a heart attack he suffered while participating in a monthly ceremony to retire and replace the American flag
Flag of the United States
The national flag of the United States of America consists of thirteen equal horizontal stripes of red alternating with white, with a blue rectangle in the canton bearing fifty small, white, five-pointed stars arranged in nine offset horizontal rows of six stars alternating with rows...
on the Walkway. Kampfer is the second person to die on the Walkway, the other also being of a heart attack while walking over the bridge.
On July 27, 2011, an Ulster County man in his late 20s is reported to have jumped off the bridge in the evening after it closed. His entry to the bridge set off an alarm bringing the police who found his belongings (and later a suicide note at his home), but he was not there; his body was found two days later.
Visiting
The Bridge Walkway is currently operating as part of the New York State Historic Park System, open from 7:00 a.m. to dusk. Limited parking is available on either end of the bridge.- East End: 61 Parker Avenue, City of Poughkeepsie (Route 9 to Marist Drive, East (right) on Washington Street, South to Parker Avenue, turn Left (East) on Parker, about a quarter mile, entrance on the Left)
- West End: 87 Haviland Road, Highland (Route 9W to Haviland Road, Parking alongside road, handicapped at entrance)
Restrooms are currently located at the ends of the Walkway, although at the time of a 2008 engineering survey of the bridge, there was "not a johnny on the spot". Pets are permitted, but owners should bring equipment to clean up. Bicycles are permitted, and the Walkway is flat and relatively wheelchair friendly.
See also
- Poughkeepsie Bridge RoutePoughkeepsie Bridge RouteThe Poughkeepsie Bridge Route was a passenger train route from Washington, D.C. to Boston, Massachusetts, via Baltimore, Maryland and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania....
- Mount Carmel District
- List of fixed crossings of the Hudson River
External links
- Walkway organization
- Walkway Over the Hudson State Historic Park
- Background information
}
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- Bridging the Hudson at Poughkeepsie 1871 Bridge Prospectus
- CatskillArchive.com copy of Scientific AmericanScientific AmericanScientific American is a popular science magazine. It is notable for its long history of presenting science monthly to an educated but not necessarily scientific public, through its careful attention to the clarity of its text as well as the quality of its specially commissioned color graphics...
article of February 5, 1887 (written during construction) has data on steel strength and testing
- Illustrations and images
- Library of Congress HAER images
- CatskillArchive.com Construction etchings and description includes etching of cantilever cranes (steam donkeySteam donkeySteam donkey, or donkey engine is the common nickname for a steam-powered winch, or logging engine widely used in past logging operations, though not limited to logging...
powered) constructing cantilevers - Walkway.org History section, has pictures of falsework and cantilever cranes.
- CatskillArchive.com illustration of bridge (side view) with bent, floor, viaduct details
- Preservation efforts and historic register information
- Walkway.org An organization devoted to saving and repurposing the bridge. Holds title since June 5, 1998. Title transfer of the eastern approach viaduct to the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, State of New York, has been completed. Title transfer to the bridge itself and its western approach viaduct to the New York State Bridge Authority, on an undetermined date, is pending.
- Bridgeweb.com article on historic cantilevers and preservation efforts
- CatskillArchive.com Poughkeepsie Journal 1974 fire article
- CatskillArchive.com POK Journal other articles of interest
- National Register of Historic Places nomination 1978 Announcement