Walkway Over the Hudson - Poughkeepsie Railroad Bridge

I believe another reason that the PC didn't want to fix the bridge was that they had diverted most of the traffic off of it after they got control of the New Haven. This was a body blow for the Erie Lackawanna.

erie2521 wrote:I believe another reason that the PC didn't want to fix the bridge was that they had diverted most of the traffic off of it after they got control of the New Haven. This was a body blow for the Erie Lackawanna.

That was the main reason...PC could route NE traffic through Selkerk to Springfield, Worchester, and Boston. It was a great chance to kill off the EL.

Don't forget that thing was the LHR's lifeline, after it burned and even after they offered to scoff up money to get it fixed all they had left was minimal online traffic.

Dump The Air wrote:Don't forget that thing was the LHR's lifeline, after it burned and even after they offered to scoff up money to get it fixed all they had left was minimal online traffic.

Yeah. But PRR owned a chunk of the l&HR as did CNJ-RDG, someone once told me ATSF did, too, but I don't think so. PC figured it redundent with Selkirk. Then they picked up the NH and if they could cut out the alphabet route from the midwest and the EL at the same time, all the better. The one with all the marbles wins!

When I was a student at nearby Marist College, 1971 - 1975, some of my friends challeged me to walk across the bridge with them at night. I declined.

I clearly remember the PC freights slowly crossing the bridge; I also remember watching it burn from campus.

I suspect the inspection is to determine if it is in imminent danger of structural failure, under its own weight or wind stresses ... like that old railroad bridge on the shortline in western Pennsylvania.

Construction is well under way for the new concrete deck on the Poughkeepsie bridge. The schedule calls for completion of the walkway in time for the 400 year celebration of Henry Hudson sailing up the river in 1609. There are big plans for a grand opening in September 2009. After that it becomes a New York State park.

Bernie Rudberg

Bernard Rudberg wrote:Construction is well under way for the new concrete deck on the Poughkeepsie bridge. The schedule calls for completion of the walkway in time for the 400 year celebration of Henry Hudson sailing up the river in 1609. There are big plans for a grand opening in September 2009. After that it becomes a New York State park.

Bernie Rudberg

This is indeed fantastic news, this interesting structure is finally going to serve a real useful purpose again. I predict it will
be a really great success. I trust the walkway will go from end to end.
Noel Weaver

The walkway over the bridge will be a connecting link in a network of hiking trails along both sides of the Hudson River. Dutchess County owns the former Maybrook line from Morgan Lake in Poughkeepsie to Hopewell Junction (12 miles). That section is now under construction and parts of it are already open for public use. They are also working on acquiring the section from the east end of the bridge out to Morgan Lake. That short piece still belongs to CSX and they want a fortune for it. There is legal work underway to condemn the property and force them to sell at a reasonable price.

When the dust settles you should be able to hike from Hopewell Junction across the bridge in Poughkeepsie and onto the trails in Ulster County.

Bernie Rudberg

Bernard Rudberg wrote:That short piece still belongs to CSX and they want a fortune for it. There is legal work underway to condemn the property and force them to sell at a reasonable price.

You'd think if they were rational, they would sell for (reasonable price) + (cost of executing eminent domain). They'd get more money and the public wouldn't have to pay any more.

A useless strip of land for them with no other intrinsic value, you think they'd be happy to get it off the books. Was it CSX or CR that did the same thing with the High-Line in Manhattan? Now there, I could understand. Lots of difference between Manhattan RE and Poughkeepsie RE.

That strip of roadbed has no track connections anywhere near it. It does however contain the former Hospital Branch which goes through a switchback and a steep grade down to the Hudson line along the river. The county wants to make that a hiking trail connection to Marist College which is adjacent to that section.

Bernie Rudberg

Fosters Daily Democrat

No idea where the newspaper is located, but it's a nice article, so I thought I'd link it. I was googling Metro-North and this came up.

Walkway Over the Hudson began its pedestrian-bridge campaign in 1992 and assumed ownership six years later. Schaeffer has headed the group since 2003 and has aggressively sought public and private funding. The $35 million project is being paid for by a mix of public and private funds, with the Dyson Foundation contributing $2 million and Scenic Hudson $1 million.

With the group still trying to raise the last $12.5 million, workers this fall are laying down prefabricated concrete slabs for the deck.

Additional progress updates directly from the project: http://www.walkway.org/

Well, not so much MOW, but the redecking of the bridge is the subject of a photo essay on the Poughkeepsie Journal online edition:

http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/apps ... 801&Ref=PH

I thought the bridge surface was going to be concrete? Why do they need to MOW it?

/me ducks, covers, and runs.

charlie6017 wrote:There already is..........the A.E. Smith bridge that CSX uses to cross the Hudson.

Someone told me that crews wont run 2 trains on the bridge at the same time. One crew would stop at the one side and wait for other train completed crossed the bridge. they said that it sways so much. Can anyone else confirm this?

One person showed me a picture of beam at bottom (same bridge??? I cant verify that), they are rusted through badly... yet, they still run the trains on that bridge.