On New Year’s Day Dad and I decided to take a walk on the newly opened Rail Bridge.
Many years ago the bridge, which used to be used for trains, burned and it had been idle for a long time.
In October, after extensive renovations and repairs, it was opened as a walking bridge and was so busy that there was often no where to park for those who wanted to walk on it.
The bridge goes from just north of the Mid Hudson Bridge from Poughkeepsie to Highland and is described as:
“The Poughkeepsie-Highland Railroad Bridge, built in the late 19th century to link New York and New England to the coal beds of Pennsylvania and the West, is a marvel of Industrial Revolution engineering. It fills the sky over the Hudson River, a muscular lattice of trusses and struts on giant footings, a survivor from a long-gone era before bridge mediocrities like the Tappan Zee.”
The walk from the Poughkeepsie side to the Highland side is 1.28 miles. We walked a little slower going over as I took a number of photos and we stopped to look over the edge at the Hudson and the scenery around the bridge. Coming back we walked much faster. Although it was a cloudy calm day it was cold (in the mid 30s). We were bundled up but after we had crossed over we were getting a little chilly so we walked faster coming back to warm up. We went a little before noon and it was a perfect time as not many people were out walking when we went. I think they were all home recovering from New Year’s Eve. It was more crowded as we came back over.
We saw a unicyclist going over also.
It was a very enjoyable time. It is too bad Angela will never experience it.
Here are a few of the pictures I took.
